Jehovah Wanyonyi: The 'God' who fed from his followers

"Jehovah Wanyonyi", who claimed to be god of several souls in Bungoma, Kakamega, Uasin Gishu and Bungoma counties died either this month or last month.

Depending on who you ask, Mikaili Jehovah Wanyonyi was either 91 or older but he had been a nomad throughout his life even as he claimed to be the "God" of the Bible.

His followers in Chemororoch Village in Soy constituency still insist that their father and “god” was still alive until a copy of the burial permit was leaked to the media.

Wanyonyi is believed to have been born between 1924 and 1925 in Bungoma County, western Kenya.

In 1956, he started a sect that came to be known as the "Lost Israelites".

Locals called the faithful "Basiraeli" even though they did not follow Judaism.

In the early 60s, he started believing he had the power to cure diseases, thought he was immortal and declared himself the true "God".

His religious symbols included a red garb of a robe, a cloth, either black or gold, tied around his waist and a red hat with artificial hair attached to it from the inside.

He rarely removed the hat, but when he did, a balding head could be revealed.

He often told his followers that red colour meant the world would end soon and so he used to sit on a red chair and carried a sword whose sheath was also red.

During Christmas celebrations, his followers staged plays to enact Jesus’s crucifixion, sang songs in praise of their "god" and invited the public to watch as long as one did not question the authenticity of their deity.

But he was also a nomad. From the early 60s, he lived with his faithful in a village some 30 kilometres north of Bungoma Town.

His followers donated land and other property to the sect as they believed he possessed healing powers.

Those who had nothing offered to toil and donate their earnings to the "god", who would then divide it among his followers.

But that faith did not last long.

As some of the locals started doubting his powers and withdrew their belief, Wanyonyi moved northwards to another village at the foot of Mount Elgon.

It was in Kimalewa Village that Wanyonyi’s sect flourished.

Here, he found willing converts among the Bareefu clan of the Bukusu sub-tribe of the Luhya tribe.

One old man from the clan donated more than 30 acres of his land on which Mikaili and his followers built grass-thatched shanties.

They would later be converted to tin-roofed structures.

These villagers would later run out of faith after it turned out he could not heal people of the diseases he claimed to cure.

As more children died of malaria, people succumbed to typhoid and HIV spread among them, tired hosts ejected him from their land.

He had also claimed three times in 10 years that the end of the world was nigh.

In 2002, he fled to Uasin Gishu County, albeit with dwindling numbers of his followers.

Despite his ‘supernatural’ claims, Wanyonyi was an ordinary human being.

He had just 25 wives, who sired him only 95 children. 

Some of his wives were as young as 16 when he reached his octogenarian age, meaning the number of children he claimed he had may be an understatement.

BBC Correspondent Muliro Telewa, who interviewed Wanyonyi in 2001 in Kimalewa, remembers seeing a man in his prime of poverty and surrounded by hungry mouths.

The "God" asked for money to feed them.

“We had no choice but to hand over more money to 'God', whose children were hungry for earthly food,” Telewa reported.

In another case, Wanyonyi threatened to bring a punishment of Aids to Kenyans if the government did not give him Sh3 billion.

The money never came, but the spread of Aids has yet to be traced to his curse.

So how did he manage to pool so many people to believe he was God?

Wanyonyi was charismatic even though he was illiterate.

He told his followers he was the God who spoke to the people as reported in Isaiah 11.

He managed to organise his sect into a tight hierarchy.

The God, him, was on top of the pyramid.

Below him was the Prince of Peace or the Prophet of God, a young man known as "Jesus" and whose duty was to report followers’ problems to him.

There were priests and their deputies whose duties included ensuring "Jehovah" was fed or who decided if he should add a wife.

Then there was the main preacher, soldiers and other security detail.

His compound had a podium, where the God and his close chain of commanders sat.

There was also a "jail" with fire, although it was not clear if any sinners were ever sent there to meet their end.

It will be seen whether his sect endures after he is gone.