Kenyan authorities in
Narok County, a town west of Nairobi, claim that night prayers organised
by Churches are to blame for the rising statistics of early pregnancies
among school going teenagers in the area.
Citizen
TV reported on Sunday that Narok County Commissioner George Natembeya
issued a ban on night prayers after linking them to early motherhood. He
told the broadcaster that in March 2018, 17 girls from Suswa Girls
Secondary School in Narok County were found to be pregnant. The same
town, in 2004 suspended street preachers, unless sanctioned by police.
District
commissioner Jan Ireri told local media the ban, imposed at a meeting
of Muslim and Christian religious leaders, was meant to end religious
confrontations.
Natembeya’s directive has since sparked mixed
reactions among Christians in the East African country with some
urging government is protecting the country minors. Others, stressed
that that the directive is against freedom of worship in the country.
Samuel
Nganga, a resident of Nairobi said: “This is ridiculous, I don’t
understand how prayers at night can be related to immorality, I think
the county commissioner has done no research. Do not provoke God in
Narok, it might just bounce back on you. Don’t try. Narok Pastors kindly
plan a ‘kesha’ (popular word used to refer to night prayers) at the
Narok stadium and invite the county commissioner. This is one of the
many ways of fighting Christ,but GOD is able in fighting his wars,have
an eye on this,the one who banned kesha prayers will not be the one to
uplift the ban,” Nicholas Muendo, a resident of Machakos remarked.
James
Ndiga said, ” I started attending night prayers in my teens and have
never heard people getting babies in the morning, the only place Kenyans
feel more secure is in the church.
Meanwhile, this development
comes at a time local media has also reports that two churches at
Kisiriri village in Laikipia West Constituency were burnt to the ground
on Sunday during an operation to flush out illegal grazers and bandits.
From Ugandan Christan news