Kenyan President William Ruto has said he is building a church at the presidential residence in Nairobi that he will pay for himself - and said he has nothing to apologise for.
“I am not going to ask anyone for an apology for building a church. The devil might be angry and can do what he wants,” Ruto said on Friday.
That statement alone has angered Kenyans already frustrated with his style of leadership and what they regard as the entanglement of the state and the church. It is not clear who Ruto was referring to as “the devil” in his comments at State House, but he says nothing will stop the project from going ahead.
“I did not start building this church when I entered the State House. I found a church but one made out of iron sheets. Does that look befitting for the State House?” a defiant Ruto told politicians at a meeting he hosted on Friday.
On Friday, one of Kenya’s leading newspapers, the Daily Nation, published architectural designs showing a large building with stained glass windows and capacity for 8,000 people.
The paper questioned whether the project was in keeping with Kenya’s secular constitution.
