‘No bribery’ as new Kenyan primate is elected: CEN 5.01.09 p 8.

A conservative academic and ecclesial statesman has been elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK).

The Bishop of Bungona, the Rt. Rev. Eliud Wabukala overcame charges of simony leveled by one of the unsuccessful candidates in the race to elect Kenya’s fifth primate and archbishop to win two thirds of the votes of the delegates to the April 24 electoral synod meeting in Nairobi.

Educated at Toronto’s Wycliffe College, St. Paul’s College, Limeru and Makere University in Uganda, Dr. Wabukala served as academic dean of St Paul’s, the ACK’s primary theological college, until his election as first Bishop of Bungona in 1996.

Until 2008 Dr. Wabukala was chairman of the National Council of Churches of Kenya and is a member of a government commission charged with investigating the 2007 post-general election political and tribal violence that killed over a 1000 and left tens of thousands homeless.

The Kenyan Church has been divided along the tribal lines that reflect Kenya’s fragile political state, observers note. Archbishop-elect Wabukala is expected to continue his predecessors’ drive towards unity and reconciliation with the ACK and within Kenyan society.

Following his election, the new archbishop told reporters he would “continue from where my predecessor left…I call for reconciliation and harmony in all dioceses.”

Four representatives from each of the ACK’s dioceses along with the members of the church’s House of Bishops met in private session at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi on April 24 to choose from among the four candidates on offer: the Bishop of Taita Teva, Rt. Rev. Samson Mwaluda; the Bishop of Maseno West, the Rt. Rev. Joseph Wasonga; the Bishop of Kitale, the Rt. Rev. Stephen Kewasis; and Dr. Wabukala.

On April 18, Bishop Mwaluda—the ACK’s representative to the Anglican Consultative Council–charged an unnamed rival with simony. “I have heard money is already exchanging hands but I will not do that because I know I have what it takes to lead the church,” he told the Daily Nation.

Speaking to reporters after the election, a spokesman for the ACK, Bishop Stephen Njihia Mwangi said the charges of vote buying were false. “Those are lies. Nobody can use money in this exercise. If one does that, they are disqualified,” he said.

After each round of voting, the candidate with the lowest total was eliminated from consideration. On the first round Bishop Mwaluda was eliminated and after round two Bishop Kewasis was removed, leaving Dr. Wabukala and Bishop Masonga—who came runner up in the 1996 election to Archbishop David Gitari and runner up in the 2003 election to Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.

Kenyan canon law, however, requires the winner to receive a supermajority of votes, and a fourth round of voting was necessary for Dr. Wabakala to win a supermajority from the 162 delegates present.

A participant in the 2008 Gafon Conference in Jerusalem, Dr. Wabukala is expected to maintain the ACK’s present stance of impaired communion with the Episcopal Church and join the primates’ council of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), and support the third province movement in North America.

Bishop Bill Atwood, who serves as suffragan bishop of All Saints Diocese in Nairobi and one of the ACK’s two bishops for the US, told The Church of England Newspaper the new archbishop was “gracious and humble, yet a courageously principled man who lives for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

His election was “a great day for the Anglican Church of Kenya and the Anglican Communion,” Bishop Atwood said.

Dr. Wabukala will be assume office on July 1, and be consecrated Bishop of All Saints Diocese—the titular see for the Archbishop of Kenya—on July 5.