Influence of the Professional training of the Clergy on Fostering Cohesion among Ethnic Communities in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper seeks to establish the influence of the Professional training of the Clergy on fostering cohesion in a multi-ethnic setting like Nakuru County in Kenya. Professional training of the clergy is not an end in itself but is the means to an end. They preach the whole counsel of God that will eventually produce mature believers who will perpetuate the kingdom values wherever they will be. Yet Kenya, with a population that is majority Christian at 83%, has had a trend of electoral violence since the introduction of multiparty politics in the 1990s with the most recent and severe case being the post-election violence (PEV) of 2007/2008. While Christians are generally credited for being a strong source of identity and value formation, it has not been the case for churches have been involved and affected often with ethnic groups pitted against each other. The study was guided by Burton’s Human Needs Theory (HNT) and Lawrence’s self- in-God (SIG) model. The study was conducted in Nakuru, a cosmopolitan County, employed descriptive research design and involved the Africa Inland Church (AIC), Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK), Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) and Africa Gospel Church (AGC) Congregations. A sample of 120 members of the clergy selected using purposive, stratified, proportionate and simple random sampling techniques participated in the study. The clergy’s questionnaires (CQ) were used to collect data. The content and face validity of the instruments were examined by experts and their suggestions used to improve the tools before they were used to gather data. The collected data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Data was described and summarized using frequency tables and percentages. The Spearman’s correlations was used to establish the relationship between the clergy’s training and fostering cohesion among communities. The findings of the study established that professional training and qualification of the clergy does not influence fostering cohesion among ethnic communities.