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Rev Timothy Njoya: The ‘Twitter grandpa’ schooling millennials

By NJOKI CHEGE September 19th, 2017 3 min read

If you thought social media, and particularly Twitter, was a reserve for the young and hip in Kenya, you better think again.

Twitter is for the old folks as much as it is a hit among the Kenyan youth and retired activist and clergyman Rev Timothy Njoya is proof to this.

Rev Njoya- known from his days as a feisty civil rights activist and champion for democracy is back. No, he is not back to the streets.

SPARKING DEBATES

He is now on the virtual streets of Twitter where- through his controversial tweets- he is pushing boundaries and sparking debates in a matter akin to the fierce sermons he delivered in the 1980s.

The retired 76-year-old Presbyterian minister is not afraid to tackle hot topics such as “divinity of the clitoris” which also happens to be the name of a book he is currently working on.

“In case you forgot, The Divinity of the Clitoris” celebrates Jan 5, 1925 when mom escaped circumcision 2 pursue education in search of excellence (sic),” Dr Njoya reminded his followers on Twitter.

As expected, Dr Njoya received barbs and bouquets in equal measure, particularly from his relatively young audience- some who might be too young to remember Dr Njoya the activist.

The widely published clergyman was fiercely criticised for tweeting about the unmentionables, with some even questioning his sanity.

BATTLE AGAINST FGM

In his defence, Dr Njoya tweeted that the book simply wants to wage a long-standing battle against FGM and gender-based violence as well as compel Kenyans to have the tough conversations about religion “dehumanizing women”. He also critiqued his followers obsession and focus on the female body part; “By talking about clitoris and sexuality, people have failed to capture the ethos of my book on divinity of womanhood,”

Even before the matter was put to rest, the self-proclaimed “househusband” –in reference to “housewife”- recently revealed that unlike many married men, he does not depend on his wife to cook and clean after him.

In fact, Dr Njoya tweeted, he cleans his own clothes, washes dishes and to prove it, he tweeted a picture of his freshly done laundry…some of which included innerwear.

The picture, showing crisp white innerwear left to air and dry against a green background, was aptly captioned: “9am. I have just done my laundry since breakfast. I tithe all the money I save by shaving myself and washing my clothes.” It received a torrent of responses.

His point was very clear; doing one’s laundry and cleaning up after oneself does not strip a man off his masculinity.

He encouraged the young men- most of whom were distraught and shell-shocked at his actions- to take their own cleanliness in their own hands and follow his example.

“My cleanliness is a spiritual self-activity. I don’t want when Christ comes again to find me having colonized my wife,” he tweeted.

Ever polite and keen to respond to as many queries as possible, the clergyman has somehow managed to keep his cool even in the face of opprobrium and some disrespectful comments.

He takes time to meticulously respond personally to the tweets addressing his followers by their names whilst calling some “ignorant” for their rather archaic views.

When Dr Njoya is not spending his time schooling his followers, he occasionally offers snippets into his life –just like a typical millennial, constantly updating his followers what he is up to.

On another occasion, he tweeted a picture of his study room and informed his followers that as a househusband, that was where he spent most of his day doing one of the things he loves most –writing.