Many times I had to answer the question, "should I be a missionary in Kenya, we're 70% of the population are Christian?" I have repeatedly asked myself, "What do we do in a country with such a high percentage of Christianity?"
But these questions also raise concern on the following:
- Why is there so much indignity in a country of so many Christians?
- Why are there more than 50% AIDS cases in the population of a Christian country?
In search of answers, I began to study Kenya and it is the resulting outcome.
We are mistaken in thinking that we understand and know the real situation in Kenya.
Statistics recording 70% of Kenyans to be Christians has not been accurate in a long time. At best, today about 60% consider themselves Christian, most of which are part of the Orthodox faith. From time to time, they attend Evangelical churches, but their Christianity ends at that. Outside the church the people live immoral lives, far from the life God intended us to live. With that, we can conclude that only about 10% of Kenyans are Christian.
Paganism has not lost its influence and power in Kenya for many years. In fact, paganism is increasing due to many who become disappointed in Christianity.
Islam is developing quickly and spreading in any new territories.
There are seven major regions, where more than 90% of the population is Muslim. Those regions are Mandara, Wajir, Garissa, Lamu, Kilifi, Kwale, and TanaRiver. In three other regions, the number of Muslims reaches 50 to 70% of the population.
Kenya is not a Christian nation. We should no longer be relying on an inaccurate outdated statistic. This country needs Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, most local missionaries carry out their ministries in locations mostly build up of Christians.
Kenya has many tribes that are unaware of Jesus. Borane tribe, Burj, Gabbro, Somalis Badzhuni, Swahili, Digo, the Mijkenda people, and Ormas have around 90% population unaware of the man who brings hope, Jesus Christ.
Kenya needs missionary work, but perhaps it's time we reach out to those tribes who have not heard about the Christ.
This is a problem of Christianity all over the world however. Over the decades, we've mostly been focused on reaching the same group of people, and to put it gently, we have not paid attention to those who have never heard about Christ
.