On a chilly Sunday morning at Majengo shopping centre in Lugari Constituency, Kakamega County, a small congregation gathers beneath the trees. Seven men and five women sit listening to their pastor. They belong to Street Church Majengo, a fellowship formed by people whose lives were once consumed by alcohol.
Now with 38 members, the church offers former drinkers understanding, fellowship and an opportunity to rebuild their lives. Among its regular visitors is Everlyne Otatwa, the Mugunga Sub-location assistant chief, whose fight against illicit alcohol has made her a familiar figure in Lugari.
Known on social media as Madam OneGB, Otatwa is celebrated for her sharp humour and colourful advice. She counsels couples and warns villagers, drinkers, witchdoctors and night runners using local dialect, parables and jokes.
“I am the Assistant Chief of Mugunga in Lugari, born again... who preaches the gospel and people get saved because am a pastor and if you get me on the other hand, I whip you and you get straight from your crookedness,” she says in a Facebook video.
The nickname dates back to her younger years.
“Before getting married, I was a very slim lady unlike now and that is how I earned the One GB nickname and it has stuck on because it reminds me where I have come and am proud of it when called,” she says.
Otatwa, a mother of five and two adopted children, also pastors Global Visitors Chapel (GVC) in Mugunga. One of her adopted children, a boy in Grade Three, was rescued from a family involved in selling chang'aa.
On this Sunday, she has stepped away from her own church to attend the street fellowship, as she often does. Her husband, Rueben, a nurse who was also once a drinker and now serves as an assistant pastor, remains at GVC to lead the service.
Otatwa once dreamed of becoming a police officer, but her father, a senior driver at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), preferred that she pursue teaching.
“I even had an offer letter of Kaimosi Teachers Training College but I refused and got married in 1999,” she says.
She later joined her husband in Garissa, where she found faith and eventually became a pastor in 2015.
When an assistant chief vacancy was advertised in 2019, she applied but finished second. A fresh opening in 2022 gave her another opportunity, and this time she emerged top. She is now one of 10 assistant chiefs in Lugari Constituency.
Faith, she says, informs both her ministry and her approach to resolving disputes.
When she took office, alcoholism was rampant in Mugunga. People could be found passed out along roadsides and in market spaces. Otatwa recalls one brewer producing 1,000 litres of illicit alcohol daily using chemicals.
She approached the woman, who requested two months to change her business. Otatwa agreed, but later learnt that the brewer believed she would not take any action.
She subsequently organised a raid alongside her chief and village managers. To prevent information from leaking, the managers surrendered their phones before the operation.
They found drums of illicit brew and destroyed them, calling in reinforcements during the exercise. The brewer later relocated to neighbouring Bungoma County.
Otatwa says the number of illicit drinking dens in the area has since fallen from 17 to three. She hopes to make the sub-location alcohol-free within the next three to four years.
“I do not just fight illicit brew using my authority, I also pray and fast for my village hoping that one day... God will help me and my village managers to end this problem,” she says.
Bhang remains a challenge, particularly along the Eldoret-Busia highway. She also says some court decisions can frustrate enforcement efforts.
Interestingly, the street church was once on the opposite side of her work. She would arrest some of its members for alcohol-related offences. Today, they are friends and fellow Christians.
Pastor Isaac Amusavi, who leads the fellowship, understands the grip of alcoholism from personal experience. He began drinking in 2017 after the death of his wife, who left him to raise their three children.
“I did not drink like a normal drunkard, I was drinking with anger for the loss of my wife which took me to the wrong route,” he says.
Soon, much of his earnings went towards alcohol. He would drink until 3am, sometimes breaking down in tears, before waking up to start drinking again.
His businesses, which included a motorbike and power saw, suffered as his addiction left him increasingly unable to work.
“Eighty per cent do not enjoy, they’re crying, desiring to stop drinking but they can’t,” he says of people struggling with alcohol addiction, adding that grief and overthinking contributed to his own drinking.
Alcohol also took a toll on his health. He stopped eating and underwent two operations, complications from which he says continue to trouble him. In March 2020, when Covid-19 was announced in Kenya, he was in hospital recovering from surgery.
The experience changed his outlook on life and inspired him to help others facing similar struggles.
On January 4, 2026, Amusavi and two other former addicts founded Street Church Majengo after one of them asked why they had stopped attending church.
The question prompted them to establish a fellowship where people battling alcoholism could find support from others who understood their experiences.
Members meet every evening for prayers and encouragement, with Sunday reserved for worship.
Amusavi says they deliberately chose not to join established churches because they believe shared experiences are important in helping people overcome addiction.
“Most pastors have not been victims of alcoholism and may not understand and handle us in the right way like the way we know each other,” he says.
For him, the greatest reward is witnessing fellow drinkers turn their lives around.
Some members, including teachers and doctors, have overcome addiction. One of them, Dr Chris Agisu, was once close to losing his job but has since recovered and now uses social media to speak against alcoholism.
Beneath the trees in Majengo, the congregation remains small. But for its members, every prayer, shared experience and step away from the bottle is a reminder that recovery does not have to be a lonely journey.