Pastors and Witchdoctors: A bigger problem than drugs in Kenya...
I must first mention that this will not stand out as the ‘blog of the year’ and my views will not be the most popular on a subject that many would rather not address and even the media not highlight simply because we are a religious lot. I should also point out that I am a good Catholic and not bent on challenging the existence of God or that of any other Supreme Being. I am also not contesting the existence of miracles in life but I am worried of the impact of ‘Pastors’ and ‘Witchdoctors’ who are taking hold of every sphere of the many hopeless people.
The obsession with Pastors and the mutated inexplicable prayers by Kenyans will be a bigger problem than drug addiction soon. Many people do not want to actively package themselves to attract employers....we have prayers being done on roads because drivers and other road users don't want to think and follow rudimentary road rules....single people don't want to open up for dating but run to a ‘kesha’ to land a partner...women who are unable to conceive with their husbands are trying to conceive with the pastors instead of visiting doctors...rather than go to hospital for treatment of simple diseases like typhoid or for diagnosis we have hundreds lining up for miracles.. rather than making a saving for a better future we rather panda mbegu with all our earnings in the hope of a tenfold harvest without placing any effort ....
There is a big difference between prayers, miracles and seeking shortcuts; most of the actions we get involved in qualify as seeking shortcuts in my thinking. Many of us watch stage managed ‘miracles’ that hoodwink others on national TVs and do not even bother to interrogate these acts. This is despite the fact that a considerable number of the miracles are conducted and claimed on people we well know not to have had any problems walking, seeing, hearing etc that they claim to have been healed from.
Almost every electricity pole in every shopping centre in the country has an advertisement for witchdoctors and their services. The odder their names and claims of coming from Tanzania or Zanzibar, the more potent they are assumed to be. This will be the other addiction the Kenyan state will have to fight after the religion one. The services offered by the witchdoctors are ridiculous but the adverts are an indication that they are demanded by the clients hence the homogeneity in the advertisements.
Generally, the advertisements claim to offer services on a variety of matters bordering on the most insane including getting a job, winning a court case, landing a promotion at work, getting a visa to the US, enhancing sexual prowess for men, dealing with conflicts on land, handling terminations and warnings at work etc. Everyone will agree with me that none of these matters need to be solved by a witchdoctor but have scientific and social solutions.
An examination of the offers and the claims by the pastors and the witchdoctors and the vulnerability mainly of many people these cons and their claims is worrying and should bother every free thinking human. It is a fact that many are facing hard times socially and economically but that should not be an excuse for anyone to run to the instant coffee type of solutions that are being offered by the fake pastors and witchdoctors. The older people must give hope to the younger ones when they are faced with challenges. Many of us face challenges that are not new to the human race and since we have no older persons to refer to, we end up believing that we are the first humans to lack jobs, lose a job, be unmarried, be broke etc. This is the gap that the ‘Pastors’ and witchdoctors are filling in an airtight way.
We can be better than this.
The obsession with Pastors and the mutated inexplicable prayers by Kenyans will be a bigger problem than drug addiction soon. Many people do not want to actively package themselves to attract employers....we have prayers being done on roads because drivers and other road users don't want to think and follow rudimentary road rules....single people don't want to open up for dating but run to a ‘kesha’ to land a partner...women who are unable to conceive with their husbands are trying to conceive with the pastors instead of visiting doctors...rather than go to hospital for treatment of simple diseases like typhoid or for diagnosis we have hundreds lining up for miracles.. rather than making a saving for a better future we rather panda mbegu with all our earnings in the hope of a tenfold harvest without placing any effort ....
There is a big difference between prayers, miracles and seeking shortcuts; most of the actions we get involved in qualify as seeking shortcuts in my thinking. Many of us watch stage managed ‘miracles’ that hoodwink others on national TVs and do not even bother to interrogate these acts. This is despite the fact that a considerable number of the miracles are conducted and claimed on people we well know not to have had any problems walking, seeing, hearing etc that they claim to have been healed from.
Almost every electricity pole in every shopping centre in the country has an advertisement for witchdoctors and their services. The odder their names and claims of coming from Tanzania or Zanzibar, the more potent they are assumed to be. This will be the other addiction the Kenyan state will have to fight after the religion one. The services offered by the witchdoctors are ridiculous but the adverts are an indication that they are demanded by the clients hence the homogeneity in the advertisements.
Generally, the advertisements claim to offer services on a variety of matters bordering on the most insane including getting a job, winning a court case, landing a promotion at work, getting a visa to the US, enhancing sexual prowess for men, dealing with conflicts on land, handling terminations and warnings at work etc. Everyone will agree with me that none of these matters need to be solved by a witchdoctor but have scientific and social solutions.
An examination of the offers and the claims by the pastors and the witchdoctors and the vulnerability mainly of many people these cons and their claims is worrying and should bother every free thinking human. It is a fact that many are facing hard times socially and economically but that should not be an excuse for anyone to run to the instant coffee type of solutions that are being offered by the fake pastors and witchdoctors. The older people must give hope to the younger ones when they are faced with challenges. Many of us face challenges that are not new to the human race and since we have no older persons to refer to, we end up believing that we are the first humans to lack jobs, lose a job, be unmarried, be broke etc. This is the gap that the ‘Pastors’ and witchdoctors are filling in an airtight way.
We can be better than this.
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