Kamais Isaac Lokai

19/09/2025

Psalms 106: God's mercy despite human rebelion

18/09/2025

Psalms 105 The faithfulness of God endures forever

18/09/2025

17/09/2025

Big shout out to my newest top fans! 💎 Susan Naserian, Moses Lenaingoingoi, Lilly Allen Camais, Jackson Lelaono, Helson Ongeso

Drop a comment to welcome them to our community, fans

17/09/2025

Good evening

16/09/2025

Congratulations ACK Namayiana Choir. To God be the glory

16/09/2025

Congratulations my sister Sylvia Nasieku and Sarulai Menye Ntito

07/09/2025

THE MOON HAS DIED… OR HAS IT? LESSONS FROM THE SHADOWS AND SCRIPTURE

By Rev. Isaac Lokai Kamais
7th September 2025

Among the Turkana people, when a lunar eclipse occurs—as it has today, the 7th of September 2025 across East Africa—it awakens song, sound, and ritual. Children and women stream out of their huts, raising voices to the night sky:

“Iyee Yeooyie! Akuj Akapolon kiteyarai Nyakuj a, Ng’akon kipi kimasi…”

The earth trembles with rhythm as drums, gongs, and empty jerricans echo through the plains. Even now, the atmosphere in Baragoi, Samburu North, is alive with these reverberations, as though the heavens themselves were shaking.

I remember as a child being caught up in the same frenzy. We would run barefoot into the open fields, our little hands clutching sticks to strike against tins, our throats hoarse with chanting. The elders would urge us on, saying that the moon was dying, and unless we sang and drummed with all our might, the heavens would collapse upon us. Fear and wonder mingled in my heart. I believed that our voices, raised in urgency, could rescue the moon from death.

But now, having reached my cogito ergo sum—my awakening of faith and reason—I see clearly. The Bible shines its light on such practices. These songs to the moon are but misplaced devotions, exercises in futility, for Scripture warns:

“Beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars… you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them.” (Deuteronomy 4:19)

Job confessed that even the thought of being enticed by the splendor of the moon would be “an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have been false to God above.” (Job 31:26–28)

The Apostle Paul writes with piercing clarity: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25)

The moon eclipse, then, is not the death of the moon. It is only a shadow cast in God’s perfect order, a momentary dimming in the great dance of creation. To sing to it, to fear it, to offer it honour, is to mistake the created for the Creator. God, who once overlooked such ignorance, now calls all people everywhere to turn and worship Him alone (Acts 17:30).

For the truth is this: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” (Psalm 19:1) They declare His glory—not their own.

The moon does not die. The stars do not reign. The sun does not save. Only God is eternal, and only He deserves our praise.

As I listen tonight to the echoes from Baragoi, I cannot help but think: how often humanity confuses the creation for the Creator. Yet the lesson is plain—when we worship the created, we miss the Creator; but when we worship the Creator, creation itself sings in harmony.

01/09/2025

DEVOLUTION IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF KENYA: A PASTORAL, HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
Rev. Isaac Lokai Kamais

Introduction
The concept of devolution has shaped both the life of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) and the Republic of Kenya. In both Church and State, devolution arose as a response to challenges of governance, representation, and service delivery across vast and diverse territories. This paper argues that devolution, whether ecclesiastical or political, must ultimately be evaluated by its pastoral concern—the well-being and dignity of people created in the image of God (Imago Dei).

Historical Trajectory of the Anglican Church of Kenya

The Anglican presence in Kenya began in 1844 with Johann Ludwig Krapf of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), who established mission work in Mombasa (Maxon, 2019). The Church gradually expanded inland through evangelism, education, and healthcare, culminating in the creation of the Diocese of Eastern Equatorial Africa in 1884, which covered Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika (Gathogo, 2011).

In 1955, the consecration of the first African bishops, Festo Olang’ and Obadiah Kariuki, marked the rise of African leadership (Hastings, 1994). By 1960, the Province of East Africa was inaugurated, uniting Kenya and Tanganyika under Archbishop Leonard Beecher. Ten years later, the Province split, and Kenya became an independent province, with Archbishop Festo Olang’ as primate. In 1998, the Church officially adopted the name Anglican Church of Kenya to reflect its national identity (Gatumu, 2018).

Today, the ACK has grown to 40 dioceses (ACK, 2024). This expansion is not just administrative—it embodies a pastoral theology of bringing the shepherd closer to the flock.

The Logic of Ecclesiastical Devolution

In the past, dioceses covered vast areas, leaving bishops overstretched. For instance, the former Nyahururu Diocese, which included Samburu County, spanned over 24,000 km². A single bishop overseeing such a territory was both practically and pastorally impossible. In the Diocese of Nakuru, confirmations sometimes took two years, since the bishop’s schedule was overstretched. Such delays in sacramental ministry reveal why devolution of dioceses is a pastoral necessity.

The Provincial Synod has occasionally imposed moratoria of 5–10 years on new dioceses to guard against ethnic fragmentation. While polity concerns are valid, they must not overshadow the pastoral imperative of Missio Dei—God’s mission of reconciliation, care, and presence among His people (Bosch, 1991).

Affirmative action by the Province in creating new dioceses for expansive and marginalized areas—such as Samburu and Marsabit—was therefore a theological act of justice. To contextualize, Samburu County alone is larger than Israel (22,072 km²). Without devolution, episcopal care in such areas would remain distant and inaccessible.

Political Devolution in Kenya: The 2010 Constitution

The story of devolution in the ACK finds resonance in Kenya’s political history. For decades, the Northern Frontier Districts (NFDs)—Samburu, Marsabit, Turkana, Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa—were marginalized under the centralized state (Whittaker, 2015). Infrastructure, healthcare, education, and political participation lagged behind the rest of the country (Adan & Pkalya, 2005).

The promulgation of the 2010 Constitution introduced 47 devolved county governments, radically shifting power and resources closer to the people (Cheeseman, Lynch & Willis, 2016). For the first time, formerly marginalized counties received direct budget allocations, enabling investments in healthcare, roads, water projects, and education.

Parallels Between Ecclesiastical and Political Devolution

Both Church and State reveal similar lessons:

Accessibility of leadership: Just as county governors are now accessible to citizens, bishops in devolved dioceses are closer to Christians.

Affirmative action: The recognition of historically marginalized regions in the Constitution parallels the ACK’s creation of dioceses in Samburu and Marsabit.

Pastoral and social justice: Devolution in both realms is ultimately about addressing historical imbalances and ensuring care reaches the periphery.

Theological Reflection

Theologically, devolution aligns with the Incarnation of Christ (John 1:14). God did not remain distant but came to dwell among His people. In the same way, ecclesiastical and political devolution embody the principle of presence. Bishops closer to their flock and county governments closer to citizens echo the divine model of proximity.

Moreover, devolution reflects the Pauline model of the Church as a body with many parts (1 Corinthians 12:12–27). Every region, however small or remote, is indispensable to the health of the whole. To neglect Samburu or Marsabit would be to deny the body its fullness.

Conclusion

The Anglican Church of Kenya’s devolution from 1844 to 40 dioceses today parallels Kenya’s political journey from marginalization to the promise of the 2010 devolved state. Both trajectories remind us that viability cannot override pastoral and human concern. The Missio Dei—God’s mission—is realized when every person, whether in Nairobi or in the remotest corner of Samburu, experiences the nearness of care, justice, and dignity.

Devolution, then, is not simply governance; it is a theological act of incarnation, justice, and mission.

References

ACK (2024) Provincial Synod Report 2024. Nairobi: Anglican Church of Kenya.

Adan, M. & Pkalya, R. (2005) Conflict in Northern Kenya: A Focus on the Internally Displaced Conflict Victims in Northern Kenya. ITDG–EA, Nairobi.

Bosch, D.J. (1991) Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

Cheeseman, N., Lynch, G. & Willis, J. (2016) Decentralisation in Kenya: The Governance of Governors. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 54(1), pp.1–35.

Gathogo, J. (2011) ‘The Intellectual Heritage of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK)’. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 37(1), pp.91–110.

Gatumu, K. (2018) The Anglican Church of Kenya: Identity, Polity and Mission. Nairobi: Uzima Press.

Hastings, A. (1994) The Church in Africa 1450–1950. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Maxon, R. (2019) Britain and Kenya’s Constitutions, 1950–1960. London: Routledge.

Whittaker, H. (2015) Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Kenya: A Social History of the Shifta Conflict, 1963–1968. Leiden: Brill.