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Anglican Church in Western Kenya Condemns Burning of Churches
By Godfrey Olukya
VOL African Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
February 9, 2021
The Anglican community in western Kenya has condemned the burning of churches.
This comes after arsonists set fire to five church buildings, later throwing feces on the destroyed structures. The burning of churches reportedly took place between January 20th to January 21st in western Kenya.
A spokesman of Anglican Church in Western Kenya, the Rev. Samuel W'Ouma, said that the Anglican Church condemns such acts which are meant to scare Christians. ''There is need for the security agencies to hunt those who set fire to the churches. The government should not allow such nonsense to go on in the country.''
The Rev. Stephen Oundo of St. Paul Church in Western Kenya said, "It is unfortunate that in this century there are still people who destroy churches. As Christians we need to fight against such wrong elements.''
Anglican parishioner, Aggrey Wanyama said that they will start guarding their churches especially at night so that they are not burnt down. The Morning Star News reported recently that at least five churches were set on fire by unknown people. It reported that St. Monica Church's building was burned on Jan. 20 in Otamba village, in the Nyaraibari Chache area of Kisii County. On Jan. 21, the buildings of the Worldwide Church with 100 members, a Seventh-day Adventist church and a Legio Maria (an indigenous movement that broke with mainstream Roman Catholicism in 1963) congregation were torched; at about 3 a.m. on Jan. 24, arsonists burned the building of a 250-member Pentecostal Church, all in the same village.
It said "Apart from setting the churches ablaze, the arsonists also committed the heinous acts of scooping human feces onto the buildings to discourage the faithful from attending their ruined churches. A majority of the church members were afraid to attend services [in or near the ruins] in the aftermath of the burning of the churches, fearing that the arsonists might follow them right into their homes, risking the lives of their families.
The churches incurred damages in the millions of Kenyan shillings to the structures, chairs and other items in the buildings, the source said. The Church and Clergy Association of Kenya condemned the burnings in a press statement.
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