President William Ruto has told Kenyans that he owes nobody an apology over a multi-billion church that he is building at State House Nairobi.
The president said this hours after an expose by the Nation Media Group revealed that he is quietly building a mega church inside State House at an estimated cost of Sh1.2 billion.
“I am a believer in God and I have no apologies to make. We are building a church. Let Satan be annoyed and do that which he wants to do,” President Ruto said on the construction of the controversial State House church.
“I have no apologies to make. For building the church, I have no apology, and there is no one that I will make an apology to.”
While acknowledging that indeed he was building the mega church, President Ruto claimed that it was because he found a church made of iron sheets when he moved into State House after the 2022 General Elections. He then alleged that the construction will not cost the taxpayer a cent, raising more questions on whether he will cough up the estimated Sh1.2 billion from his pocket to fund the project.
“I am not using public resources; I am using my own money. The problem is that [the previous church] was made of iron sheets,” the president claimed.
READ MORE: Shock of Sh1.2 billion church Ruto is building at State House
The mega church has been designed by Skair Architects Limited and has a sitting capacity of 8,000. The project is already coming up near the presidential helipads. It is not clear why the president has chosen to install a church at State House against Article 8 of the Constitution which prohibits the State from adopting or endorsing any religion.
There are four individual prayer rooms inside the church and one big family room. There are also multiple entry points, storage rooms, toilets, and circulation corridors included for crowd control. There are two prayer rooms on each side of the main auditorium and multiple auxiliary rooms including offices and washrooms.
The construction comes at a time when budgetary documents tabled at the National Assembly have been allocating tons of million to State House for alleged refurbishments. It was not clear from the expose, though, if the church whose construction is estimated at Sh1.2 billion is being funded from these funds and, or where construction money is being sourced from.
