Are Pastor Kanyari’s Congregants Solely To Blame For His Evil Activities? Here Is The Insight
“Poverty has no doctrine. A poor person will do anything to escape the pinching situations that life subjects them to. Religion is one of those escape routes. There is no woman who cannot trade her dignity for the good of her kids and; neither is there a man who can resist crevasses to improve their status. The turn-up we see in churches is the best tally of the hopelessness that has visited mankind. Does that mean that any wealthy and learned person in church is mainly there for their psycho-social and not religious needs? Dysfunctions like a cheating husband, nagging wife or chase for show-off are the reasons my likes attend congregations. Yes!”
These are noble words of my fellow Moi University alumnus and former MUSO chairman, Mwamburi Mwang’ombe as extracted from his piece, ‘Understanding Dr. Mwangi Kanyari’.
What Mwamburi simply means is that religion is the construction of an individual person, depending on what they are undergoing in their daily lives; their ways of life and their social-economic status.
Mwamburi goes on to ask, “Did you see any wealthy or middle-class person in that church? The Salvation Healing Ministries is in Kayole! Why? Do you think it will make same returns if it was based in a leafy or even woody suburb, like where I currently reside? My friend Dennis Nyasani has just reminded me that you can even know the income of a person by the loudness of their prayer! There is no way Uhuru can pray in the same pitch, tone, manner and length like you do. While your prayers are bound to run in the fashion of, “Ebenezer, Jehovah Elohim, God of Abraham, Isaack, Jacob….”, somebody like me and Bill Gates will predictably pray thus: “God of my provisions, Lord my friend and…”. You now see the poor do not directly associate with God –it is the God of Abraham, Isaack or any other great man they pray.”
Incredible, right? This begs the question, are Kanyari’s congregants the reason why the rogue pastor has continued to reap unfairly from myopic worshipers?
The answer could be yes depending on the knowl-how you have about Kanyari’s history and exploits. I vividly remember there was a time when former NTV reporter Dennis Okari, in his piece, Seeds of Sin, exposed Kanyari and his evil activities.
Mohamed Ali and John Allan Namu’s expose is not the first on pastor Kanyari. This is the second time it has been done. However, as Ali and Namu revealed last Sunday, Kanyari’s accomplices are the same and surprisingly, they have grown in number.
Interestingly, majority of them come from the slum regions of Nairobi. Of course you don’t expect people of Chris Kirubi’s economic impetus to be found in Kayole, Pipeline, Kwa Njenga and Kwa Reuben and the likes of such ‘dirty places’. I have every reason to call them dirty because for one year or so I lived in Mukuru Kwa Reuben and learnt everything about slum life.
What does this say: the poor and those below the poverty line, those whose socio-economic status have been ragged are the main victims of Kanyari’s false prophecies and testimonies.
A closer look at the accomplices of the rogue preacher’s activities will tell you that indeed these are people in need of money. These are the same people who, when they realised they have been conned this time round, decided to expose Kanyari’s stage-managed miracles to the KTN reporters.
But one thing that is appalling is the fact that, despite the expose on NTV and KTN on the rogue pastor’s endeavors, his congregants will continue attending church come this Sunday, as usual, because the very same congregants cannot accept the truth.
They will flock the church, all in the name of getting miracles like healing of deadly ailments like HIV and blessings in form of great business opportunities and many more.
Has the society become so blinded that we cannot believe even what we see, hear, feel, touch and taste? Is that the way we have opted to go?
When women of their own dignity, men of their own respect, go all the way to hack deals with a rogue preacher, to stage-manage testimonies, only to get meager cents from the deal as Kanyari smiles all the way to the bank with chunks of money, that can only be termed as madness.
Poverty is an individual’s creation and the bible discourages poverty. Pastor Kanyari knows that well but he is taking advantage of poor Kenyans to reap big.
In fact, from a more serious perspective, the only mistake Kanyari has committed is using the word of God to earn a living. As Mwamburi says, nobody wants to be poor. Everybody wants money to lead a better life. Pastor Kanyari is an actor, who is making use of the industry well, without the knowledge of the spectators.
Paying 310 bob for an entry into the theatre is so lenient. Some actors demand more than a thousand.
Kanyari’s congregants should be blamed because they go a step higher to be more generous and part with their pieces of land, vehicles, money, wives and husbands, all in the name of getting more and more entertainment from Kanyari.
Mwamburi finalises in a very smart way by saying, “there is always a prickly worm in poverty –that tickling to death and error. The poor will always make mistakes because that is the nature of Poverty in a capitalist confine. Their efforts to run away from the tentacles of the rich make them slide deeper into turmoil. In that gap of nature, the likes of Apostle Kanyari thrive. Ironically, that revelation by Jicho Pevu has put more fraudulent churches on a pedestal to prosperity.”
