How did Prophet Owuor, quail birds become Kenyans’ choices?

By Donald B Kipkorir

There is a craze sweeping the country. Those searching for material wealth in terra firma are investing in quail birds. It is our new Eldorado. Forget the oil find in Turkana.

And those searching for heavenly bliss hereafter flock to the Repentance & Holiness Ministry of Prophet Dr David Owuor.

Both the tiny and innocent looking quail bird and the tall, burly and bearded Prophet promise their respective followers self-fulfillment.

How did we travel on this road? How did we end up with these two choices for our great country?

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), an Austrian Doctor and father of psychoanalysis said that our lives are influenced by our childhood experiences, cultural environment and irrational drives deep in our unconscious.

To him also, the conflicting desire to live and fear of death was what drives us in life. Majority of Kenyans were born into poverty and many are doomed to remain that way till death.

Those who survive the death traps of poverty and her brother diseases and misfortunes are forced to live on the edge of life. And many driven by these combined factors want out.

We want to run away from their earthy problems now. From our monetary, marital and medical issues, we don’t have the patience of time. We adore the successful amongst us without interrogating the source of wealth.

People join without second thought every new scheme in town. Pyramid schemes in whichever format are highly successful. The owners of the schemes who always remain anonymous become rich and the majority are left counting their pennies.

When Kenyans are afflicted with terminal diseases and other disabling ailments, we look beyond our medical doctors.

As a Roman Catholic, I don’t believe or disbelieve the miracles of Prophet Owuor. What is not in dispute is that he has many followers, who have left their wealth, family and careers to follow him.

Maybe his followers are aping Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and James and his brother John, who literally left their nets and family. But nowhere have I read Jesus or his disciples saying all are called that way.

St Paul the Apostle earned his upkeep from making and selling tents. Here is a man who was a contemporary of Jesus never converting stones into bread.

Quail birds are by nature wild. Then, an anonymous someone came over, and whispered to Kenyans that quail eggs are miracle cure for all diseases. I am told some people with AIDS swallow each day, twenty raw quail eggs.

The market for quail eggs is the hottest. I know several people who have abandoned their careers for quail farming. The rush for quail farming reminds me of same exodus to fish farming, then eucalyptus and also aloe vera trees.

Thank God, things like gold, oil, titanium and iron ore don’t excite many Kenyans. Quail eggs, though small are as good as those of a chicken or duck and no more.

Kenya needs to find solutions to its earthly problems elsewhere. Not in quail birds or miracle crusades. Both are escapist and like the bewitching music of Pied Piper of Hamelin, will lead to disappointment.

Any promise of quick fixes, by any leader, businessman, prophet or a charlatan is what Karl Marx (1818-1883) warned of when he said: “Religious suffering is at one and the same time, the expression of suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions.”

He could only have been referring to the wretched and the desperate seduced by the abracadabra of miracle healing and instant wealth. Success and healing is built on more solid ground not on sack-clothes or fragile eggs.

–The writer is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya