Nigerian Church Ordered Out of Kenyan Dist

Panafrican News Agency, 28 October 2000

Nairobi - A church with its roots in Nigeria has drawn the wrath of a Kenyan cabinet minister who has accused it of various ills, including child abductions and ordered it out of his home district.

Energy Minister Francis Lotodo Saturday ordered the pastor of Winners' Chapel out of his West Pokot district, saying its leadership was working in cahoots with anti-government forces and members of the Mungiki traditional sect with the aim of removing President Daniel arap Moi from power.

He has called on the government to conduct a thorough investigation on the church countrywide with a view of banning it.

"Although the freedom of worship is provided for in the constitution, we are not going to allow such organisations to soil our people with evil doctrines," he said.

Lotodo told a public meeting that three children narrowly escaped abduction recently and laid the blame on the church's followers whom he accused of having funny and sinister practices.

The minister's outburst against the church comes barely two weeks after Winners' Chapel featured in parliament where an assistant minister in the office of the president, William Rutto, said it was one of the churches the government was investigating with a view to proscribe them.

A spirited defence of the church by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who said that Winners' Chapel was one of the fastest growing churches in Nigeria where it is highly regarded, did not go well with Rutto.

"The government will not be intimidated by the church's successes elsewhere," Rutto retorted.

Child abduction has become highly an emotional issue in Kenya following a wave of mysterious disappearances and murders of children in the past one month.

There are also fears that ritual killers are on the loose since most of the bodies of the kidnap victims had vital body organs missing.

It is not, however, clear why Lotodo lumped Winners' Chapel with Mungiki, an unregistered group dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Kikuyu cultural traditions.

Among Mungiki's key practices is female circumcision and offering prayers while facing Mount Kenya, God's seat of power according to the Kikuyu community of central Kenya.

While issuing the marching orders to Winners' Chapel, Lotodo warned members of the Pokot community not to fellowship there or else "you will follow these people to Nigeria."

He advised the people to look for spiritual nourishment in "recognised" churches.

Lotodo further took issue with the church for conducting its prayers in a hotel, which during normal working days was a beer hall.

"How can a church hold its meetings in a bar where drunkards and people of ill-reputation operate from?" the minister wondered.

Winners' Chapel is one of the new churches that have sprung up in Kenya in the past decade. Most of them have no buildings of their own and rely on hired facilities ranging from stadia to hotel rooms and even bar halls.

At the height of the child abduction terror, police had to fire in the air to deter a mob that wanted to raze a church they claimed was behind the killings.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Nairobi's Kayole estate was accused by the mob of having strange teachings and that those behind the ritual murders were operating from there.

The church has its roots in Brazil and most of its pastors are not fluent in English and Kiswahili, the two national languages of Kenya.

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