Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has declared the coming Saturday 21st March a National day of prayer to ” ask God for His forgiveness, Protection and Blessings” for the nation and the world in the battle against the fast growing Coronavirus.
President Uhuru comes second to US President Trump who declared the past Sunday a National Day of Prayer, also seeking divine intervention in the looming struggle to contain the spread of the novid coronavirus.
In his announcement, President Uhuru called on all media stations, both radio, tv and digital, to provide live coverage of the event which shall be held at State House Nairobi.
Kenya announced a raft of measures that ban events with more than 100 people in attendance and for this reason, this National Day of Prayer will be “observed in our homes, in our places of work or wherever we shall be residing on that day.” the president said. As such, there would not be a typical huge gathering as in the past.
President Uhuru says in consultations with other leaders, and religious leaders, it was thought and decided necessary to seek the intervention of God.
Below are excerpts of the President’s speech.
“We acknowledge always that we are nothing without our God. And we have learnt over time that turning to God in such times gives us not only comfort but also hope and strength to overcome even those challenges that for us as humans may seem insurmountable. “
“With this in mind and after consulting a cross-section of ordinary Kenyans as well as our religious leaders, I have decided to declare this coming Saturday, 21st March 2020, as a National Day for Prayer.
“In consideration of the protocols that we announced on Sunday and other ongoing protocols that will be announced from time to time, I have thought it necessary that this day of prayer be observed in our homes, in our places of work or wherever we shall be residing on that day.
“This prayer day will be led by a team of religious leaders here at State House, Nairobi starting at 12.00 noon on Saturday.”
“On that day, through our religious leaders, we will be asking God for His forgiveness for anything that we may have done wrong or wronged Him. On that day, we shall together ask for His protection and blessing for our Nation, for our people, for the world and all global citizens. We shall ask God to abide with us, and to guide us, both in this period, and in times to come.
“And in this, I am guided by the following scripture and I will quote from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians as read in the book of Phillipians 4: 6 – 9, “Do not worry about anything instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Then, you will experience God’s peace which exceeds anything we can ever understand. His peace will guide your hearts, your minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
“He goes on to say: “And now dear brothers and sisters, one final word, fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable, and what is right and pure, and what is lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting in practice all you have learnt and received from me, everything you have heard and saw me doing then the God of peace will be with you.
“Fellow Kenyans,
“Let us join hands together on Saturday. Let us pray for our country. Let us pray for our unity. Let us pray to see this pandemic resolved and let us pledge to love one another, to live in peace and harmony with each other and let us pray that the world will once again refocus itself on those things that are good, on those things that are virtuous, on those things that are peaceful.
“May God bless you all and may God bless the Republic of Kenya.”
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