Pray, how do these healers make virus disappear?

By Patrick Mathangani

When Agnes* was diagnosed with HIV, she was devastated.

She joined a charismatic church near her home in Nyeri and swiftly became ‘born-again’, accepting Jesus as her personal saviour.

Her friends were surprised at the sudden change, considering her former lifestyle.

Her health was fast deteriorating, but a fellow worshiper promised to take her to a bishop based in Nairobi, to pray for her.

On the advice of her church, she also refused to take ARVs. But several prayer sessions failed to heal her.

"She refused to be taken to hospital, believing God would heal her," a friend said at her funeral.

Many believe were it not for her church, and insistence on miracles, she may be alive to see her daughter through secondary school.

When HIV and Aids began devastating families, some faith healers, quacks and witchdoctors took advantage of victims’ helplessness.

They claimed to cure Aids and related illnesses, raking in millions of shillings. Worse still, the faith healers freely advertise their services in local media, apparently without any form of regulation.

Bishops in charismatic churches broadcast their services on television, where they claim to heal all diseases, including HIV and Aids with the power of prayer.

In some broadcasts, volunteers testify how they were cured through prayer sessions.

Doctors dismiss the self-proclaimed healers as conmen who should be in jail. The media also takes blame for allowing quacks to use their platforms.

National Aids and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Programme Director Nicholas Muraguri says many people have been conned millions of shillings through such schemes.

No tests

"When you tell somebody he is cured and no test has been done to prove it, they stop taking ARVs. I have seen many whose condition deteriorated when they stopped taking drugs," says Dr Muraguri.

In one case taken to court, a preacher was accused of conning patients by claiming to pray for them.

Investigators found that after the prayers, the patients would be sent to specific clinics, where fake medical tests would be conducted.

And conveniently, all the tests returned negative, and the patients were issued certificates, showing they were free of the Aids-causing virus.

The Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, which regulates medical staff, says it has no powers to end the schemes.

The board’s CEO Daniel Yumbya says their mandate given by the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board Act excludes regulating faith healers, traditional medicine men and witchdoctors.

He said the issue should be addressed immediately. "If they are so good, why don’t they grab a whole ward of patients, pray for them, and heal them? Doctors would be excited," he says.

Father Vincent Wambugu, of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, says there should be caution where there are claims of faith healing.