Walk past a certain church in eastern Nairobi on a Sunday and you will see worshippers carrying empty containers, waiting for oil.
“Once the oil arrives, you will hear the excitement among them,” says Margaret Njoki, a Nairobi resident.
Ms Njoki has watched not one but two churches – the other in the Nairobi city centre – buy cooking oil in bulk, subdivide it into smaller containers and sell it to believers after it has been “blessed” by the preacher. Of all the money-making ventures she has seen churches go into, she ranks this as the most controversial.
“It is vegetable cooking oil in the shop, but once it comes to the church, it is passed off as olive oil. You know, olive oil is very expensive. That is the oil people get smeared with and are told not to wash off,” she told Nation Lifestyle.
Olive oil holds a special place in worship. In the Bible, it was used to anoint priests and kings as a sign that God had chosen them and it burnt in the lamps of the Tabernacle. Valued in the ancient world for food, light and soothing wounds, it became a symbol of blessing, healing and the presence of the Holy Spirit. That explains why olive oil – or whatever passes for it – moves fast in churches. This writer has attended several places of worship where it was on sale. Oil is not the only product sold in these churches.
In an interview with Nation in May 2023, renowned preacher Ezekiel Odero said he sold handkerchiefs at Sh100 each because he, too, spent money buying them, and that the proceeds went to running the church. At the time, his church was also selling “living water”.
Elsewhere, a famous Nairobi-based preacher was in 2025 captured in a viral video selling anointing oil, which typically sells for less than Sh4,000, for Sh194,000 a bottle.
The trade is global. The US-based Kathy DeGraw Ministries, which sells online, brands its olive oil a bestseller. For $14.99 (Sh1,946), a believer can buy frankincense and myrrh healing anointing oil, with a “biblical prayer cloth” thrown in. What is termed as Jehovah Rapha anointing oil, Exodus 30 Biblical oil and books are also on offer.
Valued in the ancient world for food, light and soothing wounds, olive oil became a symbol of blessing, healing and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
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Back home, books – often written by the pastor – are a staple. Jubilee Christian Church (JCC), for instance, says there are books on sale in its online store. Other churches own TV stations where all manner of commercial engagements happen, including programmes that encourage viewers to send small amounts of money in the hope of winning larger sums. In May 2025, an NTV investigation showed how viewers were asked to send as little as Sh20 for a chance to win up to Sh50,000. One pastor claimed to make up to Sh700,000 a day.
The Communications Authority of Kenya responded by fining defiant broadcasters Sh500,000 each and giving them 12 hours to pull down the content or risk losing their licences. Whereas some believers see such ventures as a pathway to self-reliance, others view them as a distraction and even a defiance of the Bible’s teachings. For Ms Njoki, it is the intention that matters.
“It depends on the purpose,” she says. “If they are only after wealth, they will fumble. That is why we have instances of cooking oil being sold in smaller containers. But if they sell and use the proceeds to help others, it is okay.”
Rev Peter Nganga, the founder of Abundant Life Worship Ministries, took a long, hard look at such practices and delivered a scathing verdict in his 2023 book, “Pastor, Stop Fleecing the Flock”.
Rev Nganga argues that ministry is a vocation, not a career of choice, and that pastors are trustee stewards who will give an account for the life of every sheep.
“We are not in the business of enriching ourselves but in the sacrificial service of the Lord,” he writes. He draws a straight line from the temple in Jerusalem, where Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers, to today’s pulpits.
“We have made the church a market,” he writes. “Instead of true worship, we are busy merchandising God’s word. Instead of preaching eternal life, we preach wealth, prosperity, and earthly comfort.” He reserves special scorn for televangelists whose followers send money “not as worship to God, but as an investment”, expecting returns on every promise. When the returns fail to come, many are frustrated and some abandon the faith.
“While our megachurches continue to expand, and as we get more comfortable, most of the congregation is getting impoverished,” he writes. The fallout of such emotional giving, driven by manipulation or outright coercion, he warns, includes family conflicts as spouses disagree over how much to give, debt, failure to meet family obligations, depression and, sometimes, suicide.
Because the church appears to be “an extremely profitable business” and there are few restrictions on starting one, he adds, even crooks are opening churches. He recalls a lawyer who, having helped a prominent pastor close high-end property deals, joked that lawyers should shut their offices and open churches to get rich faster. Some preachers, Rev Nganga writes, even sell photocopies of land, house or vehicle documentation at exorbitant prices, promising buyers that the real thing will follow.
To fellow ministers, he offers the example of American televangelist Jim Bakker, whose prosperity message once reached millions through his PTL Satellite Network before he went to prison. In his memoir, “I Was Wrong”, Bakker admitted: “Not only was I wrong, but I was teaching the opposite of what Jesus had said.”
In an interview with Nation in May 2023, renowned preacher Ezekiel Odero said he sold handkerchiefs at Sh100 each
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The same warning comes from Dr Simon Cunningham, a theology scholar and the founder of the theological education website HolyGround.com. Dr Cunningham knows Kenyan churches well, having earned a master’s degree in biblical studies at Africa International University in Nairobi in 2008 and served as a pastor before obtaining a PhD in theology from the University of Nottingham. He now lives in the US.
Generally, he told Nation Lifestyle, churches should avoid profit-making ventures because their calling is to make disciples and care for people.
“Profit is not inherently wrong, but the demands of sustaining a church through generosity and running a competitive business often pull leadership in competing directions. In my experience, the result is mediocrity in both,” he said.
The worst cases he has personally seen were churches that entered the food and beverage industry, ran the ventures badly and eventually closed their supposed “ministries”.
“Calling a business a ministry does not supply the expertise to run it,” he said.
On the scriptures cited on both sides of the debate, he says the fact that Apostle Paul went into tent making is testament that a minister can support himself through honest work, but it “does not establish a mandate for churches to operate businesses”.
Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, on the other hand, condemns the corruption of worship and the misuse of sacred space. The line, he said, is crossed “when faith becomes a sales mechanism, blessings become products, or people’s financial contributions determine their spiritual standing”.
Some churches have strayed from their core mandate into income-generating business without paying tax.
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Selling a useful book can be legitimate if the pricing and any benefit to the pastor are transparent, he argues, but selling oil or handkerchiefs on the promise that they will secure healing, protection or divine favour commercialises faith.
He is equally blunt about TV raffles, which he considers “fundamentally incompatible with Christian ministry because they exploit viewers’ hopes of financial rescue”.
A church broadcaster that cares about its audience, he says, should shut them down.
“Helping people escape poverty and live in abundance is good, but a church that makes financial prosperity its overriding message is spiritually sick,” Dr Cunningham said.
Such teaching, he argued, trains congregants to give in expectation of a financial return rather than out of gratitude, love and responsibility.
So, how should a church pay its bills? The strongest foundation, said the theology scholar, is regular, voluntary giving from a committed congregation, backed by disciplined budgets, fair salaries and responsible reserves. He noted that if a church is running a business, it should keep distinct accounts, be independently audited and report fully to trusted members with the independence and authority to challenge the leadership.
Dr Cunningham also supports taxing churches’ commercial profits in Kenya, as the US does with income from businesses unrelated to a church’s religious purpose. He also supported the record-keeping, audit and reporting requirements in the proposed Religious Organisations Bill, 2024 that was introduced by Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana.
“The danger arises when governments enforce them selectively, impose disproportionate burdens or use financial oversight to control religious belief and practice,” he warned.
Under Kenya’s Income Tax Act, tithes, offerings and voluntary donations are not taxable, but churches running commercial ventures such as bookshops, restaurants or rental properties are expected to charge VAT.
In 2024, KRA Commissioner-General Humphrey Wattanga told lawmakers that some churches and NGOs had strayed from their core mandate into income-generating business without paying tax, as new rules tightening the conditions for tax exemption took effect.
Not every church enterprise is a scheme, however. Mainline denominations have for decades run schools and hospitals that serve millions of Kenyans. A number of churches run mission hospitals, schools and colleges that have existed for ages.
