This article examines the stages by which the Church in Kenya offered a primary challenge to the closed political system of Daniel arap Moi’s regime, yet without establishing a political party. More specifically, the article reviews the role of the Church between 1986-1992 in generating and sustaining a public discourse on democracy and change in Kenya as well as its organizational grass-roots political activities prior to the holding of the first multiparty elections in 1992. The article argues that the debate between officialdom and the Church over the very definition of politics and the legitimate modalities of both the exercise and the limits of power, not only sustained the national discourse on democracy but also spawned demands for the democratization of Church structures themselves. The focus is on three churches: the Anglican Church (Church of the Province of Kenya, CPK), the Catholic Church, and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), which together account for around 70 percent of all Church members in Kenya. In addition, the article examines the activities of the major religious umbrella organization, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK). Data for the article were gathered in Kenya in 1987, 1988, and 1990-1993. Notes, ref., sum.
