Pope Francis holding hands with youth after addressing them at Safaricom
Stadium, Kasarani in Nairobi on November 27,2015. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Pope Francis ended the first leg of his premier African tour
with a call to Kenyan youth to shun tribalism and corruption and to help
those radicalised into extremism socialised back into society.
In
an address to thousands of youth at the Kasarani stadium in Nairobi, he
also asked Christians to defend the family and to take care of the
poor, the abandoned, the ill, and those nobody feels they need.
His
45-minute speech was centred on tribalism, corruption and
radicalisation, which were cited by the youth’s two representatives, Ms
Linet Wambui and Mr Emmanuel Mwonga, as the main challenges Kenyan youth
face.
It was also peppered with anecdotes around
issues that would resonate with Kenyans – a young civil servant’s first
encounter with corruption and a tale about a corrupt rich man who wanted
to be buried with all his money.
The Pope was neither
shy nor soft when discussing the vices and the rapt audience cheered as
he made perhaps his strongest statements to an audience that included
President Uhuru Kenyatta, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and a host of
governors and the church’s leadership.
His audience
had cheered him ecstatically when he arrived and did not need the
prompts from the masters of ceremonies to sing, cheer or launch a
Mexican wave. But when the Pope started speaking, they fell silent and
when he made a point they liked, they applauded.
“If
you don’t dialogue with each other, if you don’t discuss with each
other, you’re going to have divisions like dust, like the worms,” he
said.
He then asked all present to stand up and hold
hands as a sign against tribalism and as he held the hands of the youth
around him, President Kenyatta and the political leaders in the tent
next to his did the same.
The thousands in the
terraces also lifted hands in unison. Unlike Thursday, when those
attending mass were drenched by the rain, Friday was pleasantly sunny
and no umbrellas blocked the view.
“We are all a
nation. That’s how our hearts must be. Fighting tribalism isn’t just
raising our hands. We must carry out work against this tendency. Your
ears are to listen as you open your heart,” he then said as he shook
hands all round.
Noting that there is also corruption
in the Vatican, the small State he heads, Pope Francis described the
vice as an easy route that ends up eating not only those who steal but
makes them and society sick.
He also reminded leaders that by stealing public money, they end up depriving the poor of the services they need.
“What
will remain are the hearts of many men and women who are wounded by
these acts of corruption. All that will remain is the lack of good you
would have done. It will remain in those children who suffer because it
will have brought them down,” he added.
His remarks
about the vice, which regularly places Kenya high up in Transparency
International’s Corruption Index and had been a trending topic before he
arrived, were well received by the youth.
President
Kenyatta struck a pensive pose throughout much of the address, with his
head in his hand and his eyes on the Pope on his left.
“It’s
easy, sweet like sugar, we like it and then we end up in a poor way. So
much sugar that we end up being diabetic or our country ends up being
diabetic. When we accept a bribe and put it in our pockets, we destroy
ourselves,” said the Pope.
“Don’t develop that taste for that sugar which is called corruption,” he added.
One
of the first requests the Pope received when he arrived on Wednesday
was from President Kenyatta, who asked for his divine intervention in
the fight against the graft.
That corruption is one of
the biggest social ills in the country must have been communicated to
the Pope since then, he spoke resolutely and unflinchingly against the
vice, directing his remarks at the thousands of youth and the leaders
with whom he later met separately after the event.
“If
you don’t want corruption in your lives, in your country, start now
yourself because if you don’t start, the next person won’t start.
Corruption takes away our joy, our peace,” he said.
He
used a story about a man who died in his home country, Argentina, whom
everybody knew was corrupt to drive home his point: “I asked a few days
afterward how the funeral went and a lady with a sense of humour said,
'They couldn’t close the coffin properly because he wanted to put in it
all the money he had robbed.”
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