Kenyan President Praises Contribution of Adventist Church

By Philip Baptiste, ANN

Kenya’s president commended the Seventh-day Adventist Church for helping transform the African country during a speech at the inauguration of the West Kenya Union Conference headquarters.

President Uhuru Kenyatta was the guest of honor at the opening of the state-of-the-art complex, which has a media center, two cafeterias, and a host of offices and meetings rooms, in the port city of Kisumu.

“You have established hospitals, schools, and other socially beneficial amenities,” Kenyatta said at the inaugural ceremony on Feb. 7, the last day of the two-day event attended by 3,000 people. “You have uplifted communities, empowered our citizens, and built our nation.”

Blasious Ruguri, president of the Adventist Church’s East-Central Africa Division, welcomed Kenyatta and acknowledged the work of union president Kenneth Maena, whose leadership was able to inspire the building of the three-story office complex in just 15 months.

Maena in turn thanked the Kenyan president for his support of the church and announced that he and his team were dedicating the new offices to the mission of evangelism and discipleship.

The West Kenya Union Conference has only been in existence for two years. The rapidly expanding union has more than 300,000 members worshipping in more than 2,000 churches.