Sect believes God wants their children to die

By Paul Mutua

You would not tell it simply by looking at these ordinary looking folk, but their lives are lived on a knife’s edge believing a capricious god wants them and their loved ones to die of curable diseases. They claim a measles outbreak that has thrust them back into the public limelight is due to “satanic forces”.

Their faith has been tested time and again, often with fatal results for the youngest and the oldest among them. Now, they wage a losing battle against the State, which will not let them impose their beliefs on their children in the heat of a measles outbreak. It is a battle that has been fought before, but nothing changes.

The Kavonokya sect adherents in Mwingi District of Kitui County are at loggerheads with the Government over alleged persecution of their faith that prohibits medication. They demand the Provincial Administration and police to tolerate their belief that prohibits them from seeking medication from hospital when they fall ill.

They maintain that they believe in divine healing as prescribed in the Bible. The sect says their stand, which is not shared by most other Bible-believing Christians, cannot be compromised at whatever cost. Sect Elder David Mathuva said the arrest and prosecution of some members for neglecting sick children would not change their beliefs.

“We shall abide by the sect’s beliefs come rain or shine,” Mr Mathuva said. “Forceful hospitalisation of our children will not change our resolve.”

They held an open crusade at Malili village in Kamuwongo Division, Kyuso District to tell the Government to go slow on them. Mutua Kiteme, who led the sermon, said the issue of forceful hospitalisation of the sect members’ children was disturbing them and that the Government should keep off their affairs.

Mr Kiteme said the members were law abiding except on the issue of medical care and medication. “This issue is pivotal in our doctrine and doctors and other professionals dealing in medicine and drugs are not allowed as members.”

Kiteme said the recent deaths of Kavonokya sect followers’ children from measles in various parts of Mwingi that saw some of them forced to go to hospital was the work of evil and satanic forces.

He noted that the sect members do not fear death because no one would stop it, thus the reason why morgues had been put up in hospitals. He added that divine intervention was soon to deal with dark powers tormenting the sect members.

Steadfast in faith

The preacher urged the adherents to remain steadfast in their faith. “Do not to be moved by any form of persecution as divine intervention will eventually bail you out,” he told them.

The communication whose source the sect members insisted was the Holy Ghost was circulated to the sect adherents in the wake of the death of a dozen deaths of sect members’ children.

The children died after an outbreak of measles. Following 11 deaths in Ngoo and Kanzui areas in Mwingi East, public health officials led by Mr David Munyoki conducted an operation in which they immunised hundreds of the adherents’ children.

They also forcefully took the sick to hospital.  During the same period Kyuso DC Peter Maina rescued a number of children from Tyaa-Kamuthale families after one child died of measles. They were admitted at the Kyuso District Hospital.

Days later, while officiating over the International Toilets Day in Yoongoni village of Nuu Division, the Eastern Provincial Public Health Officer, Ms Carol Ndegwa, urged for the proscription of the Kavonokya religious sect group for putting the health of its members at stake. 

Ms Ndegwa lamented that the children died after their parents who belong to the sect failed to take them for medication and immunisation, as it was allegedly against their faith.

She said it was the constitutional right of all Kenyans to have good health and access to medical care. She warned that people who violate the Constitution by denying children access to healthcare on account of religion would be arrested and prosecuted.

Ndegwa also pointed out that her public health department had the lawful right to crack down on sick people who shun going to hospital and forcefully take them for medication. 

“The Government provides free treatment for measles and there is no reason why children should die due to their parents’ ignorant beliefs,” she said.

Recently, a sect member whose one-year-old child died of measles in Mwingi Central District was arrested and charged. Mr Musyoka Muthangya was arrested by Nyanyaa Chief Samuel Maithya and handed over to police.

No medicine

“There has been an outbreak of measles in the area, which is spreading very fast because Kavonokya adherents do not believe in medicine.

Our pleas to them to take their sick children to hospital seem to be falling on deaf ears,” Maithya said.  The chief said that two other children from a neighbouring homestead also suffering from measles were treated at the same facility.

He said the area Assistant Chief Gedion Kimanzi had been asked to ensure the sick children complete their medication.

“The problem with these people is that even when their children are treated and are given drugs, they throw them (the drugs) away. They have done it in the past, that is why we have ordered the assistant chief to make sure the children complete their medication,” Maithya said.