David Gitari

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David Mukuba Gitari (16 September 1937 – 30 September 2013) was a Kenyan Anglican church leader. He was the third primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya, serving from 1997 to 2002, and at the same time the Bishop of Nairobi.

Gitari was born in Ngiriambu, Kirinyaga County, to Samuel Mukuba, an Anglican evangelist, and Jessie Njuku. He studied at Kangaru High School in Embu and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Nairobi. He studied theology at the University of Bristol as an external student of the University of London. He was ordained a priest in 1972 by Bishop Obadiah Kariuki and was consecrated a bishop in 1975, becoming the first bishop of Mount Kenya East at age 37.

He founded St. Andrews College of Theology and Development in Kabare. In 1990, Mount Kenya East was split into Embu and Kirinyaga, and he became the first bishop of Kirinyaga, serving there until 1996. Gitari’s leadership helped the church grow through evangelism, university missions, educational development, liturgical renewal, and the ordination of women. He also chaired the Provincial Board of Theological Education and the board of St. Paul’s University, Limuru, and he worked with other Christian churches.

Gitari was known for speaking out on social justice. He spoke against land grabbing and economic injustice and opposed the 1988 plan to vote by queue, which drew threats and a night-time raid on his home in 1989. He was elected the Anglican Church of Kenya’s third archbishop on 12 January 1997 and retired on 16 September 2002. During his tenure he promoted church unity, revived Theological Education by Extension, and helped launch the church’s official website.

He was succeeded by Benjamin Nzimbi, who paid tribute to him at his enthronement. Gitari published several works, including Let the Bishop Speak (1986), In Season and Out of Season: Sermons to a Nation (1996), and his autobiography Troubled But Not Destroyed, released posthumously in 2014. He died in Nairobi’s Mater Hospital on 30 September 2013 at the age of 76. He was married to Grace Wanjiru since 1966, and they had three children.