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‘Our Enemies are God's Enemies’: The Religion and Politics of Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, MP

Abstract Margaret Wanjiru is the leader of one of Kenya's largest independent Pentecostal churches and now the Member of Parliament for Starehe, a central Nairobi constituency. This paper analyses her successful campaign, which began on the basis of a prophecy made by a visiting American minister and was imbued with Pentecostalist imagery and rhetoric throughout. She was anointed in God's name for electoral victory at a Christmas Day service at her church; claimed that she was ‘taking this seat for Jesus’ after being violently attacked on the campaign trail; and after the election depicted her success as a sign that God materially rewards His believers. Yet Wanjiru simultaneously proved able to appeal to an audience wider than Pentecostals. She made concrete pledges on development issues and wielded to great effect her identity as a single mother, a consummate urbanite, a self-made businessman, and a rare Kikuyu member of ODM. Wanjiru's religious and political speech aligned in a mutually reinforcing rhetoric premised on the material rewards promised by both. Her election provides strong evidence against the assumption that African Pentecostalism and politics do not mix.