The day after making the ruling
to nullify the Presidential election in Kenya in 2017, Supreme Court Judge and
Chief Justice David Maraga was back at his church. Many did not agree with the
ruling he and his fellow judges made, he was called all sorts of names, there
was great tension in this country and there was already anxiety about the next
phase of election campaigning. Maraga
had just sent a courageous and exciting message not just to Kenya but to the
whole of Africa. For one short moment democracy trumped ethnicity, the voice of
justice was stronger than the voice of politics and systems. He delivered a
powerful verdict. Then, the next thing I see he was on my tv screen, humbly
sitting in the middle of the church with his wife and surrounded by other
members of the congregation, people who clearly knew him well.
I don’t know much about Maraga, I
don’t know much about the in and outs of Kenyan politics and certainly don’t
endorse any particular political views. In fact, one of the problems I find
with Kenya politics is that is less on policy, more on personality, oversaturated
in personal agendas and it sometimes looks to me that it is difficult to hold an
ideological political viewpoint in Kenya. However, Maraga’s actions made me sit
up. In my eyes, in just a couple of short days he had shown courage and
humility. At the same time!
Courage and humility don’t seem
like easy bed mates but I saw them in action together that weekend. Uniting
courage and humility seems a challenge, the balancing act between the two seems
difficult to me as they present as somewhat paradoxical and incompatible. In my
perceptions, they are generally either / or practices rather than collaborative
approaches to life, leadership and service. Courage for me seems to rely on my
own strength and perhaps even ego while humility seemed to imply setting these
aside. I have reflected greatly on this but the main question persists; how can
I show courage and humility together?
For me and in the context in
which I service, I look at courage required to tackle the injustices (the
external issues) that I see all around, to bring my faith to conversation. Humility
is having the necessary reflective skills to understand my own limitations,
appreciates the strength of others, listen, empower and promote others and to
make sure others be the heroes (the internal issues).
So in 2018, I am eager to
discover how best God can use me and what has given me to bring a humble and
courageous witness of faith and justice into a hurting world. In other word, ‘walk
humbly, love mercy, act justly’ (Micah 6:8). I want to reflect on this, I want
to act on this and I want to live this out! Here goes…