Kabonokia, the sect that rejects modern living

Irunduni village — some 90 kilometres from Kathwana in Tharaka-Nithi County — bustles with activity.

There is energy, human energy, here. The white Isuzu double-cab we are riding in sticks out like a sore thumb, its diesel engine announcing our arrival as curious villagers crawl out of the mud -and-wattle huts and children pause their games to steal glimpses.    

Even though expected, we are barely welcome and nobody is willing to talk to us, or even allow us to take their picture. This is Gitonga M’Mpunguru’s home, a man who has led the Kabonokia sect, and its several thousands of followers, for over half a century.

The 71-year-old died last Thursday after falling ill the previous day.

The man whose faith does not subscribe to modern medicine was buried almost immediately according to the sect’s strict rules. He left behind a widow and four grown-up children — three sons and a daughter.

Since his demise, hundreds of Kabonokia members from across Mt Kenya and Ukambani regions have been camping at his home— not to mourn but to pray for a divine revelation of M’ Mpunguru’s successor.

Colourful dressing

A majority of them, known for their colourful dressing, left on Monday and Tuesday but are expected back this Sunday.

These hallowed grounds, which also serve as the headquarters of the sect that has roots in Tharaka-Nithi, Meru, Embu and Kitui counties, is a few kilometres from the homes of Tharaka-Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki and Tharaka MP Gitonga Murugara. Out of fear of the unknown, we had decided to park the vehicle outside the sanctum but M’Mpunguru’s daughter, who declined to reveal her name, allowed us into the compound.

There are more than 20 houses of between one and three rooms. M’Mpunguru’s family members occupy a few rooms and the rest are reserved for hundreds of believers who frequent the site for prayers and worship. There are 10 latrines and seven bathrooms, some built outside the gated homestead.

The houses are built in a circle, leaving a big open space at the centre where a makeshift structure made of wooden poles and roofed with maize stalks has acts as a shelter for worshippers. The sect doesn’t believe in permanent housing because “they are just passers-by on the earth”.

No hospital or medicine

What killed M’Mpunguru? No one knows and no one is willing to talk to us about that.

The fact that the spiritual leader could not stand mention of hospital and medicine, means he might have succumbed to an unknown infection that only a postmortem exam can unravel. And so we change tack and drop the million-dollar question: “What was he like?”

One of his three sons, Mauki Gitonga, explains that before his death, their father had directed family members and followers to bury him without any ceremony. He had also instructed that he should be buried in strict adherence of Kabonokia doctrines — his body was not to be put in a coffin and his grave was not to be cemented. Once he died, he was to be immediately buried by family members present and a few of his followers.

He had also directed that since their doctrines do not subscribe to modern medicine, his body should not be taken to a mortuary, and that they should not spend any money on death and funeral announcements in the media.

The man lived a secretive life and was similarly buried at a place that the family members declined to disclose.

Once a staunch Catholic

Mr Gitonga told the Nation that his father had been a staunch Catholic before he joined the sect.

Back in the late 1960s, M’Mpunguru met a group of Kabonokia believers who convinced him to join the sect that considers national identity cards, birth certificates, business and education among other various modern activities as “satanic”.

“He was a staunch Catholic and never missed Sunday mass,” Mr Gitonga recalls, adding that, after joining the sect, his father was taken through the doctrines that “completely changed his life”.

M’Mpunguru was also an astute businessman who owned a commercial building in Gatithini trading centre but his faith compelled him to sell the estate because, as he often told his followers, “business leads someone to sin”.

Gitonga added that, in his former life, their father had taken him and his three siblings (two brothers and a sister) to school but later withdrew them to stop them from getting “evil earthly wisdom”.

“After joining Kabonokia, my father turned to growing crops and rearing livestock, the work that God ordered the early human beings to do for a living,” he said.

And because M’Mpunguru had no deputy, the followers have been thrown into a spiritual tailspin.

What he had were assistants who will now continue leading the believers in praying for a divine vision revealing the next leader of the sect.

One of the believers, Mr James Musyoka from Kitui, told the Nation that they will continue praying until they get another leader.

‘Forced to sin’

Mr Musyoka said M’Mpunguru had led them well for many years despite immense  challenges posed by the police and government officers, “who force us to sin by engaging in earthly things like going to school, seeking medical services, acquiring identity cards and the recent national census exercise”.

“We will have to wait patiently until God anoints another person to take over the work left by my father and it’s not a must that the next leader should come from his family,” he said.

Mr Gitonga explained that the Kabonokia sect does not have a formal hierarchy of leadership because their doctrines do not allow them to choose leaders.

M’Mpunguru has a huge farm that is usually cultivated by his family and the followers. He also has more than 100 goats and several cows.

The sect’s activities have always captured the country’s attention, especially when the faithful are arrested in their tens for failing to take their children for immunisation.

God the only healer

The sect believes that God is the only healer and seeking treatment in hospital is worshiping the health workers.

Mr Gitonga told the Nation that for the 40 years he has lived, he has never known the taste of any medicine or entered a hospital.

“I have survived all kinds of illnesses by praying to God and I have never thought of going to a hospital or even taking my family there,” he said.

Last year, the sect was in the news after its members declined to be listed for the government’s Huduma Namba national registration exercise, claiming that it was a satanic ritual.

They had also declined to give out their details during the national census.

Last October, at least 11 candidates in Tharaka North who dropped out of school earlier in the year after their parents joined the sect did not turn up for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination.

A nurse employed by the Tharaka-Nithi County government also quit his job after joining the sect and reportedly burnt all his academic certificates.

Cholera outbreak

When there was a cholera outbreak in Tharaka North Sub-County in 2017, the people who died were mostly Kabonokia faithful, compelling the government to arrest and forcefully give them drugs.

Last year, Tharaka-Nithi County Commissioner Beverly Opwora ordered the arrest and prosecution of parents who had declined to take their children to school, forcing most of them to flee to the neighbouring Kitui County.

Whenever there is a mass vaccination such as that of polio, the sect members also flee with their children to avoid the jab.

Kabonokia believers also neither engage in trade nor seek employment because their work on earth is to worship God and just have enough to feed their families and help those in need.

Men and women wait until “the holy spirit” directs them on whom to marry.

Women are not allowed to speak in public gatherings. Instead, they are supposed to wait until they get home, where they can ask their husbands questions about what was discussed.

It remains to be seen whether the Kabonokia sect endures after M’Mpunguru’s death.

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