Nairobi -- One of the frail people frequently paraded before huge Pentecostal church crusades in Kenya is likely to be an AIDS victim responding to a miracle healing call by a charismatic pastor. But in the longer established churches and among health workers questions are being asked about such apparent healing after only a short prayer. They assert such interventions will undermine efforts to control and manage HIV/AIDS, which is a pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
"There are many sick people here who are desperate," says the Rev. Simon Muoko of the All Saints Anglican Cathedral in Nairobi. "They are lured to the gatherings by the promise of healing."
He questioned why the preachers demanded that people plant "seed money" for the healing. Muoko said that while the main churches support real miracle healing, he believes many of the actions at gatherings are not genuinely biblical.
And he did not rule out attempts by some pastors to try and get rich quickly. "They ask sick people to plant seed money to receive the healing," he said.
The Rev. John Murichia, a Presbyterian Church of East Africa minister in charge of Christian education, queried the intense emotion and "hypocrisy" in these activities, when there is much knowledge about AIDS in Kenya. "It is unfortunate and concerns us all," he said.
Pastor George Agisa of the Association of People with AIDS in Kenya said some Pentecostal preachers mislead their followers by saying they are curing AIDS. "We all know there is no cure, but if there has been miracle healing, why can't the doctors verify it?" he queried.
And Daniel Masyuki, AIDS programme officer for the non-governmental organization ActionAid, Kenya says the "miracle healing" actions of preachers are an obstacle to the war against AIDS, as those allegedly healed will stop taking life-prolonging drugs. "The pastors appear ignorant of the facts," he said, "but with freedom of worship, these cruel ways of increasing congregations will continue."
Kenya's public awareness on AIDS has reached 90 per cent, with the prevalence rate dropping from 14 per cent in 2000 to seven in 2004. Recent reports have said AIDS lops off 4 per cent of company profits each year in the country forcing a 15 per cent drop in the Gross Domestic Product.
