The 13 year pastor who is determined to save souls in Nairobi city

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Nairobians who regularly use Tom Mboya Street most Saturday evenings must have come across a young preacher sporting bright red robes, white hat, a small cross too.

The barely 60 centimetres tall uses no sound system.  

Nairobians are never short of comments at such spectacles: “Mtoto aende shule!” or “watu wanapoteza wakati kumsikiza mtoto?”

Meet ‘Pastor’ Maina

 The Nairobian caught up with him at an eatery outside Juja bound bus  terminus on Ronald Ngala Street ‘Pastor’Maina,  a small drum hanging on his shoulder,  turned a few heads, besides complaining to his mother of a toothache. “Imetulia,” (it has stopped aching) ‘Pastor’ Maina announces after checking into a chemist.  

Edwin Maina, a second born in a family of three, has been preaching at the City Centre since 2007.

“This started when I was only three years old,” the 13-year old explains. “I was good in drumming, then one night when I was four, an angel spoke to me saying I will become an apostle. From there, I started praying for people.” 

He began preaching around their village in Juja before graduating to Gikomba market in 2007 and finally to the City Centre along Ronald Ngala and Kencom areas, his current bases.  

“People used to ridicule me, but others were challenged by my preaching, and stood to listen” he said.

The class five pupil in Kigwi Primary School, Thika, says he shares the Word in school assembly on Mondays and Fridays and sometimes goes round classes.

“The teachers don’t have problem with me because I perform well in class. Last term I was number five in my class of more than 30,” he laments.

His services mostly revolve around prophecy, praying for the sick besides warning Nairobians to read the signs of devil worshipers in the City.

Church of Satan

“There is a church of Satan along Kimathi Street. Once inside, they sell you a ring promising riches. However, you must sacrifice the child you love most, failure to which your riches vanish before they come for you,” he warns the congregation on the particular evening.

Shockingly, the young preacher reads the Bible from his palm – he picks one person from the crowd to open a particular chapter before reading the verse from a distance, mainly in Kikuyu dialect.

Asked about other prophets, the like of Dr Owuor and Maina Ng’ang’a of Neno Evangelism, he said, “I don’t know them, and I cannot comment anything about them for now.”

 

Offerings he gets from preaching

Her mother Beatrice Muthoni says “Pastor Maina is my son and he started this at a young age. I just accompany him whenever he goes for security reasons, lest he is attacked and the offerings he gets from preaching snatched from him.”

Has the young boy crossed manhood yet? “I am not yet circumcised, but I will face the knife either next year or 2016,” he whispers when his mother is a step ahead towards a Juja bound matatu.

“I foresaw Uhuru winning the Presidency, the Westgate terror attack…and the ICC case will be terminated.” ‘Pastor’ Edwin Maina currently ministers at Church of the Holy Spirit in Kahawa Kimbo, Ruiru.  “He was appointed to be the Church’s preacher where I worship too. Where else can I go to worship yet my son is a preacher,” her mother quips.

Maina claims he has made prophecies which came to pass and others will be witnessed sooner or later.

“Days before the 2013 general elections I had been shown that Uhuru Kenyatta was going to win. I shared with few people fearing the country could end up in ashes and bloodshed like 2007,” he said.

On Westgate terror attack Maina said “in the year 2010 I was shown some blood inside the shopping mall but it was until last year that it came to happen, but I was not shown the number of people who will perish.”

Maina claims ICC cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta will come to conclusion though he cannot tell the exact time and date of the ‘termination’.