There is a wind of change blowing through this sect

Dr David Kiare, a member of the Akorino church after graduating with a Phd. PHOTO | COURTESY

SUMMARY

• Where once education was not a priority among the Akorino, its young generation is determined to change long-held backward ideologies .
• He is not the only one in this sect to acquire a PhD though, there is also Dr Ayub Macharia, the director of National Environment Management Authority, who holds a doctorate degree in Environment from South Africa, as well as United States-based Dr Solomon Waigwa, who holds a doctorate degree in Theology from a US university.
• Other factors that make it difficult for the Akorino children who join school is the fact that religion demands that they eat food that has been cooked in a certain way, with special cooking oil and accompanying rituals that are performed whenever meat is cooked.
• What would you make of a people who do not believe in seeking medical help, or who think education is inconsequential?
   It is this peculiarity that has prompted the society to associate the Akorino sect with backwardness, and view their religious beliefs as retrogressive, overtaken by time, harmful even.
  So radical are their beliefs, that some members of this highly conservative religious group, recognised by their white turbans and loud spirited worship, shun taking their children to school and to hospital.
  In 2012 for instance, a couple from Subukia in Nakuru, who subscribe to the faith, was jailed for three years after they refused to take their 10-year-old sick child to hospital, arguing that it is only God who has the power to heal.
  Such retrogressive practices might become a thing of the past though. This religious group that began in 1925 is changing, thanks to the sect’s young generation which is gradually transforming the movement by persuading fellow members to abandon some of their long-held backward beliefs.
  Dr David Kiarie, a sect member, is a manifestation of the transformation that is taking place within the group, a transformation that is seeing more and more members embrace education, and not just basic education - Dr Kiarie graduated with a doctorate degree earlier this year.
  As an indication of the rarity in a sect member going through the education system to the PhD level, when his name was called out during his graduation at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology on June 30, 2016, he was given a hearty round of applause as he walked to the podium to be conferred with a Phd in Supply Chain Management.
  Dr Kiarie wore his graduation mortarboard over his white turban, possibly an indication that nothing, absolutely nothing, would motivate a member to publicly remove it for even a second.
  He is not the only one in this sect to acquire a PhD though, there is also Dr Ayub Macharia, the director of National Environment Management Authority, who holds a doctorate degree in Environment from South Africa, as well as United States-based Dr Solomon Waigwa, who holds a doctorate degree in Theology from a US university.
  

  Dr David Kiare pose for a photo is which family after graduating with a Phd. PHOTO | COURTESY
  REMOVE THE TURBAN
  Not that there are no others in this sect who have achieved this and more, but they did so after they were forced to abandoned the faith to be accommodated in learning institutions, while others felt that the ridicule from teachers and fellow students was too much for them to bear, and so they decided to fit in.
  For lawyer and businessman, James Njoroge, he and his siblings were forced to remove their turbans to be admitted to secondary schools.
  According to Mr Njoroge, when he sat the Kenya Certificate on Primary Education examination in 1990, he scored 561 out of the 700 possible marks and was admitted to one of the best national schools in the country, but the management declined to admit him unless he removed the turban.
  “It was my dream school since childhood, and since I wanted to continue with my education, I was forced to abandon my faith to be allowed in. It was a very emotionally and spiritually disturbing experience for me, but I had to do it,” he reminisces.
  Abandoning his faith, he explains, in a way isolated him from the other sect members. “My spiritual life was affected and I still feel bad since in some way,  I was separated from the other members; any time I join them, I am the odd one out because I do not have a turban.”
  Through the years, he says he has tried to keep an association with the sect members by sponsoring programmes to benefit them. For many others though, whose parents are not ready to see them stripped of the turbans, they have been forced to drop out of school, shattering a future that might have been bright. 
  Dr David Kiarie’s story is that of hope and resilience, saying he endured hardship and ridicule from his teachers and fellow students throughout his education life, from 1985 when he joined nursery school at Nyagachu Primary School in Kipkelion, Kericho County.
  “I suffered what many of the pupils and students, who are members of the Akorino sect go through. Many pupils who had joined school dropped out, while many others did not join school at all,” he explains, adding that he has worn a turban since he was a few months old.
  The sect’s beliefs, he points out, are to blame for the low education level among its members, who value religion more than anything. “We are taught that nothing should come between us and our faith, she says.”
  SPECIAL FOOD
  

  Members on the Akorino faith pose for a group photo with Kenya's First Lady Margaret Kenyatta. PHOTO | NATION
  “Other factors that make it difficult for the Akorino children who join school is the fact that religion demands that they eat food that has been cooked in a certain way, with special cooking oil and accompanying rituals that are performed whenever meat is cooked,” Explains Dr Kiarie.
  Due to this, when he was in primary school, he would go home for lunch and when he joined secondary school, his parents decided to enrol him in a day school so that he could continue taking home-cooked meals.
  At the University of Nairobi, where he studied a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology, Dr Kiarie, who was the only member of the sect in the campus, would cook his own food at the residence hall, although this was prohibited.
  “I had no alternative, and so I broke the rule - I went through many challenges because I did not want to deviate from my faith or drop out of school. My fellow students would laugh at me, intimidate and ridicule me; others would even grab my turban and pull it off. Had I not been determined to complete my education, I would have dropped out.”
  Though he was offered several jobs soon  after graduating, he chose to further his education, joining JKUAT for a master’s degree in procurement logistics, which he completed in 2011. Later on, he enrolled for a PhD. 
  Concerned over the lack of education value among the sect members, Dr Kiarie and other scholars who are members of the church have formed education forums that bring together members who have excelled in academics.
• 
  
  The forums include the Akorino Scholars Network composed of college and university students who meet after every semester, and Akorino Students Association, which brings together sect members from various learning institutions annually. 

  MARGINALISED GROUP

  “I do not blame our parents for ignoring education because when the sect was started, its foundation was based on the spiritual perspective only - it is time to gradually change the situation,” he added.

  He and his co-founders also involve parents in these forums, where they lay emphasis on abandoning some of the beliefs which they find outdated. Their other agenda has been to push for the wide acceptance of the sect in the society.

  To give the sect members an opportunity to go through uninterrupted high school education, they are collectively planning to put up a Sh150 million secondary school in Nanyuki - two third of its admission will be Akorino.

  They observe that the sect, estimated to have 1.8 million followers, has not only experienced discrimination from the society for decades, but also from the public and private sectors when it comes to jobs; they are not considered for serious positions and tenders, they say.

  With this in mind, the members recently formed a general assembly that brings together all sect denominations to ensure they have one voice.

  Former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta, whose husband, the First President Jomo Kenyatta referred to Akorino members as arathi (Kikuyu for prophets), said the inter-denominational union for the sect was long overdue.

   “You should continue with the vigour because the unity will even enable you to do economic activities and other community initiatives just like the Catholic, Anglican, PCEA, AIPCA, AIC churches do,” Mama Ngina told the members recently during a meeting at Utalii Hotel in Nairobi.

  National issues

  Part of the objectives of the organisation will be to promote consultation, capacity building and advocacy as well as play a role of defender on matters relating to the sect.  Last month, thousands of Akorino members gathered at the Kasarani indoor gymnasium for a one of a kind prayer ceremony as a planned initiative for them to seek involvement in national issues.

  The sect, according to Mr Ibrahim Macharia, a sect member, was formed after the Kikuyu community rejected the Western religion and customs that were being practiced in the mainstream churches.

  They started practicing spiritual preaching as a revolution that carried intertwined messages touching on Christianity and the struggle for independence, activities that were deemed non-religious by the white men-led churches.

   “They began speaking in tongues and preaching Christianity and independence revolution, which they said was coming from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Though it was against the mainstream churches practices, the movement gained popularity because during the time, the country was agitating for independence, which was part of their teachings,” Mr Macharia explains.  

  This, he said, subjected the sect members to harassment by the colonialists, who considered them rebellious.

  Many were arrested, and there was even thought of killing them. And this, according to Mr Macharia, who has written a book on the sect’s history, informed the cultures and beliefs that a majority of the members who later broke into different denominations still hold on to even today.

   He explains that once word reached them that the colonialists were planning to wipe them out for defiance, the members decided to never eat anything manufactured by white-owned companies or seek education or treatment from their institutions.

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  FYI

  When turban-wearing singers and DJs hit the gospel music scene

  •  Akorino musicians have not been left behind in the gospel music scene.“We are here to stay and grow the Akorino brand to a much higher level,” says Allan Aaron, the musician from Nakuru who hit the local music scene by storm in 2009.
  •  Aaron is also mentoring young artistes in the industry using his Alan World Music label. “As much as we are in the music business, we are also trying our best to sustain our ministry.
  • Elijah Nyaga, better known as DJ Nyash, observes that the Akorino did not have a presence in the local showbiz industry a few years back.This has now changed, if this DJ, who proudly wears his turban, is anything to go by.
  • He says that a couple of years ago, he would attend music concerts and be the odd one out because of his turban. “Everyone stared at me, as if I was  in the wrong place. The stares are less now and more kenyans are ready to mingle with us freely.”
  • Today, he organises events that are flocked by scores of music fans that are from various faiths.

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  KEY EVENTS

  1925:

   Year the Akorino movement began as protest against Western religion and customs 

  2012:

  The year a couple from Subukia, Nakuru, who subscribe to the Akorino sect was jailed after they refused to take their 10-year-old sick child to hospital 

  1991:

  The year lawyer James Njoroge was forced to abandon the religion so that he could get admitted to secondary school.