How prophetess predicted deaths

By Jeckonia Otieno

First published by The Standard on 26 April 2012.

A Nairobi-based prophetess claims her prophesies have come to pass but no media house has ever had the courage to run her story beforehand.

We, too, approached her with doubt and conviction that we would prove her prophecies wrong.

Josephine Nyaboke in her shrine. Some of her prophesies have come to pass. [Photo: Jeckonia Otieno/Standard]

Wasn’t it possible for anyone to follow media debates and come up with political calculations and formulas?

We set out to meet her two months ago. Clad in a flowing white robe complete with a black headscarf, Josephine Nyaboke welcomed us into her prayer sanctuary on the upper floor of her residential house in Kariobangi South Estate in Nairobi’s Eastlands.

See the future

The mother of five strikes a serious face for the cosmic world and claims to see the future about happenings in Kenya and around the world.

Contrary to many prophets, or soothsayers, who put up in dingy abodes, she has a well-kept house with different rooms, one of which is her prayer room.

She said there are no rituals performed for anyone to enter the sanctuary, so we took our places there for the interview.

Nyaboke, 46, told us how she found herself in the world of prophecy. It was in 1983 when she received "God’s gift of prophesy while working in a salon in Dandora in Nairobi".

"I fell sick one night and my husband took me to Kenyatta National Hospital thinking I had pneumonia but all the while I was seeing visions. God wanted me to prophesy what would happen to the people of Kenya," Nyaboke recalls.

When she left hospital, not feeling better, her husband took Nyaboke to her parents’ home in Koru near Kisumu.

She was still seeing visions of people wearing robes of different colours each carrying a Bible and a cross.

Nyaboke, a devout Adventist then, lived in a trance for some time. Her parents thought she had become mad.

They therefore called for prayer ‘warriors’ from all denominations around her home area and as they were praying for her, one woman stopped the others and told them how she had seen a vision, which was a clear message that God wanted Nyaboke to prophesy. That is how it all started.

Visions on hair

On coming back to Nairobi in 1993, she went back to her salon business and life was never the same. Nyaboke claims that as she worked on clients’ hair, she would see visions about them and this shocked her and her clients when she told them about their lives.

The clients would go home and share her messages with fellow women and day by day, women flocked to her salon to be told about their future.

"My salon turned into a prayer house. I had to close it to concentrate on my calling," says Nyaboke.

If some of the happenings in the country and around the world are anything to go by, then Nyaboke is into matters beyond human comprehension. She says she has prophesied some important historic milestones in Kenya yet she is never taken seriously.

"I prophesied the fall of Kanu way back in 1999; I foresaw a new government coming to power in the 2002 General Election. I even foresaw the disintegration of Narc long before the 2002 elections," she says pensively.

Also in her list of prophesies which she says have come to pass are the August 7, 1998 bomb blast in Nairobi. She also alludes to having seen the World Trade Centre being bombed.

It is only after these had come to pass that the media went to her.

Empowered women

In the past, before the current Constitution that recognises women, she says, she has seen visions of women being empowered more than they are today. She says the future is brighter for Kenya’s women.

The most intriguing of her visions revolve around the political arena. She says God has shown her who is going to be Kenya’s next president but she is not going to say this yet. But that president in waiting is not going to have an easy walk in the park.

That person must first fulfil some requirements; one of them being total reliance upon God and something to do with the moon, the sun and stars.

On his way out

In February, during the interview, she shared a vision she had had earlier. It was about the fall of a vocal Cabinet minister. When she told us the name, we thought it was far-fetched.

Surely President Kibaki can’t do that, we argued. She said it was clear from the vision she had had about the minister that he was on his way out — that he was ‘paying’ for his past mistakes but was yet to face more problems in the ministry he was to be shifted to.

And indeed the last reshuffle saw him removed from the all-important ministry.

She also mentioned impending deaths of two prominent leaders. They were sick, she said, "and I am seeing people wailing..." A few days later news of the first death hit the news. The other followed soon after. She went ahead to name at least two others who are facing the Grim Reaper soon. .. and many more before the end of the year.

Back to politics and Nyaboke says the county faces hard times ahead. In her visions, she claims to have seen Kenyans carrying their belongings and hurriedly leaving their homes towards an unknown destination in search of peace.

How can we avoid this turn of events as a country? We ask.

"We must all turn to God and pray for peace," she says as she goes back to pray. . .and probably receive more visions.