Vandals desecrate graveyard for pioneer 19th century missionary in Rabai, Kilifi

After staying undisturbed for a century and a half, suspected vandals finally made their way to the oldest Christian Missionary Cemetery in the country and dug out the grave of one of the founding fathers and took away part of his remains.

Reverend Emund Butterworth's skull and rib cage are still missing. Investigations by the Sunday Standard show the vandals dug up the grave for two days before making away with the various body parts.

Butterworth is credited for having converted many locals to Christianity after his arrival in 1862 when he built the first Methodist Church in East Africa but died on April 2 1864. He was buried in a graveyard 10 metres away from the church he helped build.

Titus Mkangi, a member of the Methodist church and also a great grandson of the first coverts of Butterworth expressed shock at the incident.  “We are worried that these people might have a motive that may affect villagers,” Mr Mkangi said.

Butterworth established the mission at the foot of the two Ribe Hills near Kaya Ribe, which at the time was on the path of a popular slave trade route. 

Kilifi County Police Boss Fredrick Ochieng the graveyard needs a security guard to watch over it. "The police cannot be everywhere and that is why I am advising the church to employ a security guard. It is not right to interfere with dead bodies while they have been laying in peace," Mr Ochieng said.

Other graves in the area are of John Henry Martin, who was brutally murdered on November 2 1895 at Chonyi in Kilifi where he had gone to spread the gospel and that of C. Chaon Chowne, who was also murdered when he tried converting villagers to Christianity.