Lessons from Prison 2

I recently gave my account of being falsely arrested and jailed.

I am convinced that God allowed that to open our eyes to some things we have always assumed are fine.

I want us to today look at the judicial system.

I think the judiciary is the nerve center of our corruption. Probably its existence is the reason corruption is so rife. And I will use my small experience to demonstrate.

How do you come to court thirty minutes to closing time and you are supposed to determine the ‘destinies’ of over two hundred people?

Why do you make innocence so costly? Why must someone be remanded in prison for a petty offense, or for even producing evidence to refute the accusation?

Why can’t someone pay his own fine? Why must someone from outside have to pay the fine even if he has to get the money from the convict?

I ask this because we went to prison with some young men who had given their fine money to someone who disappeared with it. And there are many who rot in prison because they are strangers or even visitors with nobody who can afford time to free them. Others get ‘lost’ and so more or less disappear and nobody who knows them can trace them.

I was told of this jailed girl from a wealthy family who was able to trace her family when she fell sick and was admitted to hospital. A caregiver who was herself detained for being unable to pay her hospital bill broke the law and was almost jailed herself when she talked to her but was able to contact her family.

They came, paid whatever needed to be paid by the justice system and transferred her to a hospital befitting their status. She was in prison and her wealthy family was not even aware of her whereabouts!

Why must the fine be paid through a bank? Why do they not use mobile money yet M-Pesa is used for paying and buying everything nowadays?

The magistrate starts judging very close to closing time knowing that the banks will close before the last person is condemned. Is that not the easiest way to ensure the some people will spend the night in prison? Or could it all be on purpose?

Why send petty ‘criminals’ to prison in the first place? Would community service not suffice?

Yet we have wealthy criminals who buy their freedom through paying preemptive bonds to stop the law from touching them. Others will stretch their cases for years through adjournments and other legal acrobatics.

Mass produced justice is injustice. You cannot give an accused thirty seconds or less between the accusation being read by the prosecutor to the time you sentence them and still be fair. It is impossible to even consider anything before passing that sentence. And it is even worse when you criminalise the ‘wastage’ of your time when the accused seeks to explain their position like I saw. Mass produced justice is just like mob justice, only that the shoe has changed feet.

I strongly feel that before a magistrate or judge is hired, they are taken to prison for at least a week to be able to appreciate what they are doing to people when they sentence them without much thought. Even lawyers and arresting officers ought to go through the same for the same reason.

Another thing I think is important is to get to know the circumstances the alleged crime was committed. And I am not talking about murder or robbery as many times the cases are not as rushed and one is even offered a government hired advocate if they do not have one as a last resort; though I do not know whether it is practiced outside the statute books. But even with those we know of people who have been in prison for unending years trying to prove their innocence.

A person buys a sweet and drops the wrapper. He is arrested for dumping. Was there any trash can (dust bin) around that place? Does the responsibility for cleanliness lie only on the pedestrian? Is it not the responsibility of the government to provide bins for such litter?

Someone has continence issues. He is pressed and pees (urinates) on a fence and is arrested. Yet there were no toilets, public or otherwise, in the vicinity. Was he supposed to soil himself? Would he then not have been arrested for another offense? Whose responsibility is it to provide public toilets? What happens if one has no money to pay for them?

Every chief justice makes reducing the case backlog his priority. Is that even remotely possible if petty cases continue clogging the courts? Is mass judging the solution? Why not remove all the petty cases from the courts and look for another avenue for resolving them?

Are we by using so much of our time and resources on petty cases providing illegal money to the arresting officers as they must be bribed not to arrest those they are illegally arresting? Or are the courts not aware that they are brought the few who either refuse to bribe or have no money for the same?

Another thing I must mention is legal education. Does the person being judged know his rights and responsibilities? Does he understand what is being read to him? Does he know the implications of his ‘crime’?

Again I remember some people we slept in prison together who had been given a free bond. Why should someone who is free go to jail?

Others in the rush of the proceedings did not even know what they were fined. I remember one who heard two thousand shillings when the fine was actually two hundred.

But that must happen when justice is rushed like a stolen car.

Let me use statistics. Mine was a criminal case and its number was close to 11 000 of 2018. It therefore means that since January, that court has handled close to 11 000 new criminal cases.

For ease of computation I want us to assume that there were no cases carried over from past years, no other types of cases like civil or commercial and there was no case that was heard more than once or adjourned.

One year has 260 working days. Allowing for public holidays and a few other unavoidable breaks, let us remove 20 days and we are left with 240 days. Now, I was criminalized in the middle of the year. It therefore means that these cases were all in the first half of 2018.

Assuming also that the magistrate is in court half of the day and the other is writing judgments and that they don’t come at 4 like the one who handled us when we were brought before 11.

We have 11000 divide 120x4 which comes to 22.92 cases per hour or 2.6 minutes per case. And that is from the time your case is read to the time you are sentenced. And remember we first made wrong assumptions for the sake of being able to compute. For example, a friend was in that court for over three years after being framed and refusing to talk nicely. And anybody who presented evidence against their crime was remanded for two weeks for their case could then be heard.

If justice has to flow like grease, leave alone water, petty crimes must be removed from the court system. Or better still, arresting officers must stop using arrests as a means of looking for relevance and an extra coin. We should hang our heads in shame if after handling that number of criminal cases in a year we still have criminals.

If one single court handles over 20 000 criminal cases in one year, what are the implications? Does it mean we are so criminally minded that every other person is a criminal? And we know that more criminals bribed their way so that they are not taken to court.

Again, how will you know the real criminal if you spend less than a minute in a case?

The way I have known court proceedings is that what convicts a person is the evidence presented. That even a written confession admitting guilt is not enough if the evidence is not water tight.

I remember a case where a murderer was acquitted though he had admitted to the charges. The reason was that the police became complacent when he admitted to the crime that they forgot to bind up all the ends of the case.

Yet why is evidence not a requirement in petty cases and cases involving the county government? Do they follow different statute books? Or are rules for the same different from those of other courts?

Is the court not then part of the problem instead of the solution?

I am writing is as a layman in the legal jungle. But I am also a minister of the Gospel.

And I will give a spiritual parallel.

Do you know these pastors who are the main persons around ‘their’ church or ministry that they emasculate any upcoming gifts and callings around them? They are the all in all concerning ministry in their turf and so are preeminent in everything from counseling to prayer to wisdom.

They are the senior-most persons; from senior pastor to senior bishop to senior papa or mama with everybody else as subjects and ministry opportunities.

Do you realize that the most damaging spiritual abuse is from these ministers, even more than adulterous and stealing ones? Why?

They are packed to the rafters with ‘ministry’. You must have an appointment to see them due to that. And sometimes the appointment may take months to happen. And then one realizes that they have only a few minutes to meet with them!

Imagine that your marriage is breaking and the pastor gives you ten minutes to be able to resolve issues? Your heart is bleeding that you need to pour it to your pastor. Then you realize that he can only afford you ten minutes? And it is because in his misguided self-importance he has refused to release ‘his’ church and members into ministering to one another. And this so that he can comfortably eat the top cream of the offerings without anybody else having any grounds to question it.

Interestingly, they surround themselves with loyalists who see any evil in their irrelevance in ministry from all that busyness. Incidentally, they are the ones most hurt when their turn to receive ministry comes, some being so disgusted that they leave those churches.

Do you know these ministers who are liars not because they choose to lie but due to their overlapping and overwhelming schedules? They will commit to so many things until they realize that they are not lords over time or that time is under their authority.

There are ministers I love yet will never look for them for whatever reason. The only time I know I will see them is when they are in need of my ministry because then they have no other option. There are some who have rescheduled meetings so often that we forget when we started the drama or what we were to meet for in the first place.

When the Breakthrough Tarries

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)

What do you do when something you have prayed for tarries? What do you do when it arrives?

I am in the same situation.

God has in the process of my waiting for that breakthrough given me many other breakthroughs. God has opened many other doors of ministry, some related to the same prayer.

Yet my prayer that the discipleship material I had prepared for the nations breaks through the language I prepared it in has continued tarrying.

But finally it has happened.

Frutos Que Duram, Estudo Biblico de Disciplulado, the Portuguese translation of Fruit That Lasts Discipleship Bible Study has broken the language barrier and for that I am immensely grateful to God, the originator of the whole thing.

It has been six years of waiting, and four since the translation was done, the very first breakthrough. God provided a Brazillian Missionary family who were delighted with the task.

When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. (Psalm 126:1)

I have been lost for words as to how to celebrate this breakthrough, maybe because of the long it took.

Then I thought; why not retrace my discipleship journey? And this is what I will do, mentioning some names, though a few as the journey has been quite long. Please do not feel left out if you do not find your name in the list as it is in no way exhaustive. I will just pick on some highlights

I rededicated my life to Christ on 5^th December 1985 and developed a great ‘appetite’ for God’s word, taking it in huge chunks as I was able to read the New Testament that month. That appetite has never faded, to date.

The first people to get me into discipleship were Mike and Ann Wekesa before they got married. Ann taught at Lodwar High School and Mike worked in town. They were able to direct that hunger for growth into discipleship.

I was involved in the CU and in AIC Lodwar town.

Then I left school and God led me to AIPCA Ntharagwene church which was a training on obedience.

Pastor Wilson Mwenda Ndatho was among the first fruits of that brief ministry. He could give a fuller list.

I was then called to KIMC. Immanuel Muramba Masha (should be an information officer somewhere), Pastor Alex Diang’a, Joyce Hiribae, the lates Rhoda Mwaniki and Abachi Sebebe are among the persons who were part of my ministry at KIMC. But I was also involved in ministry in the neighborhood of the college. Redempta Musanga and Catherine Ayillo are some names I can remember. I also remember a law student called Jennifer Ombonya or a name close to that.

I joined Parklands Baptist Church which was then a fountain of discipleship. It pains me that such discipleship is now a very faint memory.

I got to know the late Pastor Gilbert Kivuti (and later his wife Esther) and Dr Juma Kilwake when we stayed together in ‘Corner house’ and grew together. It was around the time Kivuti responded to the call to ministry and resigned as a teacher. It was a training in hardship and intense growth for the short season we were together. Among the things we used to do was record sermons in the house to be able to get rid of nuances, repetitions and clichés.

I got into the Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) which was all discipleship. It was incidentally the ministry that had discipled the Wekesas.

Peter Maina and his wife Phyllis, Suji Omeno, Waithaka, Mary Atieno, Erick Wafukho, the late Cornelius Mtange are a few names I remember. Probably the highlight of that discipleship was connecting with Samuel Mwiti, my brother, one I had had great issues working with. You see he was an all-round good boy and I was the opposite from our childhood. Discipleship brought us together so that today we go for missions together, the longest being the one month we had in Mozambique which is the core of this post.

Then I joined MasterLife being led by Pastor Simon. Ruth Nyokabi Waithaka and Charity Kagwi Ndungu and I had the time of our lives growing. Of course there were a few others who would join us now and then.

Then a few friends challenged me to start them on MasterLife. Robert Njako, Treza Nyaga, Dr Daniel Mwaura, Winnie Katiku, Mary Ndunge are the names I can easily recollect.

Then God asked me to take a transfer to Marsabit and I left the group with Pastor Simon and his late wife Joy.

In Marsabit I was involved with AIC town.

Then God sent me to the manyatta and Gar Qarsa AIC where my ministry to the Borana nation was polished. Among the people I discipled were Joseph Diba, Diida Karayu, Grace Galgallu, Wario Tato, and many others. In fact the village became my home of sorts through my ministry. There was also Manyatta Haro, Manyatta Jillo, Badassa, Mata Mokha, Dirib Gombo, among other places my ministry touched. I met my wife as I was ministering and had my wedding at Gar Qarsa AIC.

Then God asked me to leave employment.

From my experience with friends who had left employment for ministry and went back fishing, I thought it hard to write a resignation. I therefore asked Him to get me out His own way and I would not have a problem with that, and that is what He did.

I   had a great battle leaving Marsabit as I though God had wanted me to leave employment to be able to grow my ministry there. I can confidently say that probably I had locked my ears to any alternative order so that I simply couldn’t hear anything else.

I became very sick. In fact I thought I was going to die. I therefore decided to go home to die there. The interesting thing is that I was well before I even got home.

Again I thought I did not want to depend on people’s support for ministry. I therefore decided to go full scale into farming so that I could support the ministry God wanted me to be involved in.

But then El Nino swept all my savings to the drain.

I then opened a workshop, for sustenance, as I waited for what next God wanted with me.

As it was picking up well that I was looking for a bigger shop, my sister told me that there were greater prospects in Kisumu. They even had a shop they would give me.

I closed the workshop for this new thing.

After staying in Kisumu for two weeks, God made it clear that He wanted me back home. And it was difficult to explain God’s voice as the only thing I was sure was that God wanted me back home and not why.

I went back home and was unable to get a shop in the whole shopping centre. Incidentally that had happened earlier when I left employment as I had been unable to get a shop in the whole of Marsabit town before sickness forced me to move.

Then a cousin gave me a shop five or so kilometres from home. I was involved in some ministry though not much.

That is where I was when Parklands Baptist Church called me to come and help establish Student Discipleship Ministry (SDM), patterned after the defunct Baptist Student Ministry (BSM)

I had to reconnect with Nairobi after so long outside. Apart from the former members of BSM, I had to look for other discipled members to help in growing discipleship among university and college students.

I met Jack and Bert Yates, Larry and Sharon Pumpelly, Jim and Linda Rice, Philip and Sandy Wilson, Dr Christopher Kanyori and of course my old friends who were involved with in BSM years earlier.

Among the young people God brought my way were Harriet Kerubo, Catherine Gathuri, Sarah Ngamau, Mitrine Musanga, Dorine Adundo, Dr. AnnWekesa, Dr Brian, Eva Njuguna, Dr Flora Kokwaro, Maryanne Anduuru, Sammi Kiruma, Emmanuel Simiyu, Tom Wambulwa Wekesa, Juma Oketch, Dr Joe Kanja. In fact this list could fill a whole page, if not two.

It was to meet the demands of a vibrant student ministry that I started preparing Bible Studies especially due to the high mobility and great variety of scenarios in the ministry.

Then God brought refugees my way. Desire Baramburiye, Albert Makila and family, Faustin Kibukila, Immanuel Aime, Zalambo Kapongo, Zaka Kashindi, Dr Omar Ibrahim. Again this list is huge. I will have to leave it here.

Then I was chucked out of Parklands Baptist support and of course facilities.

It is interesting that God took me to the place I dreaded, depending on Him for support as opposed to tent-making as I had planned. The good thing is that He stopped me from sourcing for support, something I dreaded as there are some very nasty responses some people have when they hear that someone left a good job to become a beggar. But as we read in the scriptures He is always up to task. But it has been a tough experience.

It is interesting that I was offered many pastoral positions after that, but God asked me to decline.

I then got into encouragement and empowerment full-steam. I even had Restore Hope Ministries registered for the same purpose.

I got involved with Handicapped Community Fellowship, Support and Sustain and many other empowerment forums. I got involved with Blessings Children’s Home.

Then I started writing. And it was by revelation as there was no way I could have even imagined getting into a ministry always requiring money at a time I was as yet unsure where my next meal was coming from. And I have published many books and booklets and done a lot of ministry using them.

God then challenged me to develop a support structure for ministers with a message to share yet in the dark as to how to do it. That is how Biqil Publishers was born. And to date there are innumerable ministers and very many books that have come out as a result of that act of obedience.

Patrick Nabwera, Rev Lydiah Muthusi, Pst Allan Asava, Chris Njoroge, Sabina Livuzule, Christine Uwimphuwe, Bsp Jackson Muthama Wambua, Pst Ben Muchina, Andrew Maina, Caroline Bongo. Again, the list would take too much space as I have always had a constant stream of writers needing my ministry in that direction since God directed me there.

In the process of that God opened my ministry beyond the borders. As people who have known me for long will confess, I had refused to even take a birth certificate because I did not want to be pushed into ministry outside Kenya until God said so.

Well, God asked me to get a birth certificate and later apply for a passport. It is interesting that two days after getting the passport I was on my way to minister in Kampala, Uganda. And I have gone to a few other countries over the years.

That is how we ended up in Mozambique for one month with Edwin Kirimi and my brother. That is where the burden for this book was born. You can read the report of that mission on the blog.

The book has therefore got to the position it originally started as that is where the vision originated.

I believe this breakthrough reaches beyond Portuguese.

I remember many people requesting me to allow them to translate the book in their language and of course I had no problems with it. I believe that all these years God has been preparing this breakthrough to be a breakthrough into a myriad of languages all over the world and that is why it has been tarrying. It needed intense preparation in the spiritual realm.

And now the battles are all won. Are we ready for the next level?

P.S. I will mention the ministry of availing Bible Reading Plans and Audio Bibles with Maina Kiruri (Bible Club House) over the years. I think it is important because a Bible Study that does not lead anybody into the Bible is not worthy of its name. In fact, the BS books have a reading plan in the inside cover for that purpose.

You will notice that I have only shared concerning things to do with discipleship. I know many are wondering about my exploits in music and the answer is that it doesn’t fit here. Also my involvement in the media ministry and any other ministry I have been involved in. This is therefore not a condensation of my ministry; it is a small branch of that ministry condensed; the one involving discipleship.

You will also notice that I have left out the negative challenges and the people who fell by the wayside. It is because this is a thanksgiving post. I want us to celebrate God’s goodness and victory. Again I believe there always is hope even for the one who fell on the wayside. People who know me will tell you that I give up on a person when they die.

Power of Distractions

And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. (Exodus 5:8)

I know that many of you are like me.

Or have you ever wondered how the Jews of Jesus time, who had been waiting with longing for centuries failed to recognize Him when He showed up?

Does it surprise you that the scribes had all the scriptures lined up concerning the place of Christ’s birth but that it was Herod who actually went to Bethlehem, even if for the wrong reason?

How could people miss something so momentous?

I thought it was just them. Then it happened to me. And I am still reeling with regret.

When we ministered in Mozambique over six years ago, the cry of the church for discipleship materials was heartrending and I knew I ought to do something.

We had a Bible Study book translated into Portuguese and printed it. Unfortunately, we were only given verbal permission for the same, to date.

I therefore saw the need to prepare a Discipleship material for the mission field, a material that is devoid of copyright protection so that anyone who desires to use it does not have to get into long legal and other routes before making it available in a new language.

That is how Fruit that Lasts book came out. But I can only prepare materials in English and so the book was in English. And it has really ministered since then as I have given out about ten thousand to date. It has gone to churches, learning institutions and many other places, some unorthodox. I even was invited to teach discipleship in a university using the same for two semesters. They have even crossed several borders. And the testimonies continue pouring over its impact.

But my burden was Mozambique and the language Portuguese.

God provided a missionary family from Brazil who translated the book into Portuguese. The first huge barrier had been removed.

I did the layout and made the book ready to print.

And for over four years money has not been forthcoming.

I have prayed and waited. I have raised prayer support from all over for the same.

Finally, God provided resources for the printing of the same the other day.

Of course I was overwhelmed with gratitude as I oversaw the printing.

Then what happens as the printing ends? Things happen that almost blot out the momentous miracle.

I am invited for a book launch far from Nairobi, a book I was involved in its preparation. I have to travel two consecutive nights to be able to minister in church on Sunday. Then, when I should be resting, someone has an emergency of sorts and I must leave early for town. Then I was arrested and sent to prison and the whole story changes. The miracle gets forgotten. (I have written the first episode about my experience, ‘Lessons from Prison’, in last week’s post)

I get fully occupied by the prison experience and all it taught me that I forget the answer to prayers offered for over six years.

How can I forget the answer to something that has occupied my prayer for all these years? How could I forget to announce to all who have been praying for this breakthrough with me? How do I think about prison when I should be bursting with joy and thanksgiving for the long-awaited breakthrough?

How does something so momentous lose its appeal so quickly, just because other things have come up, even drastic ones?

I am not just feeling guilty. I am guilty, very guilty.

I am therefore writing this as my repentance even before I give you the news about the breakthrough properly.

My prayer partners over the years please forgive me. My supporters please forgive me. I feel so bad that this has gone so long before calling for the kind of celebration this breakthrough demands.

I have repented before God.

Please accept my apology. And prepare a thanksgiving package for this breakthrough.

God richly bless you.