St Andrews the seat of Protestant Church in Kenya

In 1891, at the invitation of the Imperial British East Africa Chartered Company, a group of missionaries left London for what was then known as British East Africa.

The group comprised Thomas Watson, Evangelist John Greig, John Linton and C.M.A. Rahman, who were met at Mombasa by Dr Robert Unwin Moffat. They were joined later that year by Dr James Stewart of Lovedale, South Africa, who became head of the mission.

The purpose of the party was to form a Scottish mission among the Kamba, Maasai and Kikuyu communities. These missionaries arrived in Kibwezi in October 1891 and set up a mission under the name, the “East African Scottish Mission”.

Unfortunately Kibwezi was heavily infested with malaria, resulting in the loss of 11 missionaries, forcing them to relocate to Thogoto near Dagoretti in 1898, where they constituted themselves as the Church of Scotland Mission.

While the Church of Scotland Mission was specifically targeting an African congregation, it soon became apparent that there was a rapidly expanding settler population that was “spiritually destitute”. As a result, St Andrews Nairobi was created in 1908 to cater for a European congregation.

The St Andrews Church was completed in 1910, some say not without a little help from US president Theodore Roosevelt during his visit to Kenya in 1909.

The building is of a typical Gothic design, featuring rough dressed stone walls with buttresses at regular intervals to the external elevation, standing on a step foundation.

The floor is of a raised construction finished in polished cedar boards while the roof was originally covered with iron sheets, which have since been replaced with clay tiles.

The roof is supported by shiny black timber trusses while the ceiling is finished in polished tongued and grooved timber boards. Doors are made of polished timber encased in pointed arch frames while windows are glazed in similar frames. Pews are made of hand carved polished timber and provide a seating capacity of 200.

The buiding is in a good state of structural and decorative repair. It is currently being used for a French Service every Sunday.

The church was originally situated at what is now the corner of Uhuru Highway and State House Road, where the Lutheran Church stands today. The site tended to be swampy hence the use of a step foundation. The church building was later relocated brick-by-brick to the present site on Nyerere Road.

In 1951 a modern sanctuary was built to the west of the original church. The foundation stone had been laid the previous year by His Royal Highness, The Duke of Gloucester.

The St Andrews Church has over the years been regarded as the seat of Protestant christianity in Kenya and in keeping with that image, has provided leadership in a number of different ways.

In 1949 Rev David Steel was appointed Minister of the church and of the Parish of East Africa (which included Uganda and Tanganyika), where he presided over a congregation covering a geographic area the size of Europe. In terms of seniority, alongside the Anglican Bishop, Rev Steel was second only to the Governor of Kenya.

The reverend had a great deal of sympathy with the plight of the dispossesed Africans, and was equally incensed by the vicious response of the colonial government to the Mau Mau protests, the incarceration of thousands of black Kenyans in barbed-wire camps and the hanging of 1,000 of them without trial.

Stinging attack

In a sermon from the pulpit that was broadcast throughout the country titled, “The Massacre of the Innocents”, Rev Steel delivered a stinging attack on the colonial government.

The leaders were deeply embarassed and considered deporting Rev Steel but thought better of it arguing that he knew too much and would be more dangerous back home in Britain than in Kenya. His chief informant was Duncan MacPherson, head of Kenya’s criminal investigation department, and who was equally shocked by the maltreatment of African detainees.

Sir David Steel, son of Rev Steel and former leader of the Liberal party in Britain, was brought to tears in 2007 as he watched a British documentary in which his father was described as a “subversive priest” saying: “It was our Guantanamo Bay”.

Rev Steel also campaigned vigorously for more African involvement in the top leadership of the church and as a result of his efforts, the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) and the overseas presbytery were amalgamated under the General Assembly. He left Kenya of his own accord in 1957.

In 1971, Rev John Gatu, then General Secretary of the PCEA and presiding minister at St Andrews Church, issued a moratorium on foreign missionaries and funds, marking the symbolic end of the colonial mission paradigm and the start of the post-colonial era.

I recall the wedding of Rev Gatu’s daughter at which he presided in 1972 at St Andrews, and for the first time, he insisted that the bride must be presented to the altar by both parents and not just the father as was the tradition. This tradition was adopted widely thereafter.

In another departure from tradition at the same wedding, instead of the usual wedding cake, the guests were served a goat roasted over a charcoal grill to reflect an African perspective.

The famous “satanic symbols” saga of 2004 threatened to split the church when senior members of the clergy destroyed priceless historical fittings, including stained windows, at St Andrews claiming they were associated with Freemasonry.

Perhaps this decision was based on some misconception about the origin and purpose of these artefacts, but fortunately the matter appears to have died a natural death.

St Andrews Church has not yet been gazetted as a national monument, but discussions towards this end with the National Museums of Kenya could be at an advanced stage.

The PCEA archives are currently sequestered at the church while undergoing collation and cataloguing with a view to making them readily accessible to scholars and other interested parties.

Mr Kiereini is a retired banker