After hiring a priest to pray for her, Evarline Okello broke down in tears and revealed that she is hundreds of dollars in debt.
Evarline can no longer support her four children since she lives in a small shack in Kibera, a sizable slum in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
While we speak on the phone, Ms. Okello informs me that she hasn’t received any pay in months. She was eager to see the pastor after hearing that his prayers might improve people’s lives. He demanded $115 (£96; 15,000 Kenyan shillings) from her.
This is referred to as a “seed offering”: a monetary gift made to a religious figure with a particular goal in mind.
Ms. Okello obtained the loan from a friend who did it on her behalf. She had been assured that this pastor’s prayers would be so effective that she would receive a refund of her investment in just one week.
However, the miracle never materialized. In fact, she claims, things grew worse. Due to unpaid interest, the loan her buddy took out has ballooned.
She currently owes more than $300 and is unsure of how she will repay it. She no longer has a job, and her pal has stopped speaking to her.
“Things have become so difficult I have lost all hope,” she says.
Kenya has been severely impacted by the problem of living expenses.
According to Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics, food prices increased by about 16% in the year prior to September 2022, and according to data from the World Bank, the number of unemployed Kenyans has increased by more than twice in the last seven years.
“People are living very desperate lives,” says Dr Gladys Nyachieo, a sociologist at Multimedia University of Kenya.
She asserts that this has intensified their desire for paranormal remedies and that many of them are now prepared to pay for a miracle, even if they must borrow the money.
“People are being told that God doesn’t want them to remain poor. So they plant a seed,” she tells me.
The Prosperity Gospel, which holds that God rewards faith with prosperity and health, is the source of the practice.
It is suggested that believers demonstrate their faith by offering money, which is said to be returned to them many times over by God.
The Prosperity Gospel originated in America and gained popularity there in the early 20th century. Nigerian pastors began traveling to the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s to learn more about it.
In the early 2000s, American evangelists like Reinhard Bonnke, who attracted sizable crowds from Lagos to Nairobi, helped it gain popularity across Africa. Popularity is still increasing today.
[ads2]
