Ostracised by society because of working for the Freemasons

When Daniel Gachanja was offered a job as caretaker at the Mt Kenya Masonic Lodge in Nyeri seven years ago, the Standard Eight dropout wondered what it would be like working at what many local residents call “the devil’s place”.

He said he felt obliged to accept the offer from S.S.Mehta, a local contractor and member of the lodge who had given him construction work before, because he had received “a call from God.”

“God had spoken to me and said I would get a job on a construction site, and when I found a job here, I knew that God was fulfilling that promise,” said the 42-year-old father of two.

But today he wonders whether he should have followed his instinct and turned the job down because the ensuing years have brought him nothing but misery.

He said he has lost friends, neighbours and family members who have shunned him because they believe he is a devil worshipper.“Some of my friends have tried to kill me many times, but God always protects me,” he said. “I live an isolated life, but I work just as if I am working for God.”

When British settlers brought Freemasonry to Kenya in the early 20th century, the myths and superstitions surrounding the organisation, whose origins go back to medieval England, came along as well.

Originally begun as independent spiritual and welfare associations of master stone masons who built the medieval castles and cathedrals in England and Scotland, Freemasonry is not a religion but a membership organisation open to men of all faiths who profess belief in a “supreme being” and who seek to lead moral and useful lives.

Roman Catholics

However, this has not stopped some organised religions, including the Roman Catholic Church, from being openly hostile to Freemasonry.

The original Mount Kenya Masonic Lodge, one of nine in Kenya, was built of local stone in 1932 on a piece of land in King’ong’o in Nyeri County. About a decade ago, unidentified arsonists burned it down.

Lodge secretary Mahan Harmesh Mahan called in the police, who said they would investigate, but nothing came of it.

But Mr Mahan, another lifelong Nyeri resident who has been a lodge member since the 1980s, said although some local residents may covet the land to which the lodge holds title, he didn’t think there was any organised effort to grab it.

When the lodge was first established, all the members were British, he said, and it wasn’t until after Kenya became independent in 1963 that non-Europeans were allowed to join. Since then, most of the members are Kenyans of South Asian origin, but he stressed that membership is open to all.

Mr Gachanja takes care of the new lodge that was rebuilt in 2009 with stones from the old one. He says he knows of a number of previous caretakers who didn’t last as long on the job as he has because of fear of threats from the local community.

Many of those people, he says, believe that in order to become a member of a Masonic lodge, you have to sacrifice a child, relative or a close friend in order to raise money. So they couldn’t understand why he had agreed to work for such people unless he had become one of them.

Many of these beliefs emerged at the time of great religious upheaval in Europe when so-called “freethinkers” were beginning to question the absolute authority of monarchs and religious authority. They were often labelled devil worshippers and suffered extreme punishment.

Mr Gachanja recalls vividly how his problems started immediately after he began to work at the lodge. His father blamed him for making him ill in order to take his money. Ranjit Sagoo, a building contractor who was born and brought up in Nyeri and joined the lodge in 2007, is worried that the myths and rumours are doing harm to the group that devotes much of its time to charity.

He said the lodge’s several core members, who include Christians, Sikhs and Hindus, are trying to come up with ways to help people understand Freemasonry.

He said that recently several people came to ask to join the lodge after they read in a newspaper that they would receive Sh2 million as soon as they became members.

Malicious claim

This — and a claim maliciously inserted in the website of the District Grand Lodge of East Africa that claims new members receive the equivalent of $100,000 (Sh8.5 million) — he said are patently false.

George Wanjohi, a local cobbler, said he feared the very word “Masonic” since he believes it has “everything to do with Satanism”.

“People say that members go there at night and, during their prayers, they drink human blood.”

Lucy Wambui, who lives near the lodge, says she trembles whenever she has to walk past it.

Mr Gachanja says it took him years to convince his father and family that he did not cause his father’s illness and that even today not everyone believes him.

His first wife ran off with everything in the house in which they lived on the lodge grounds. He said she couldn’t take the criticism and threats from her family and the community.

For several years he lived as a bachelor on the lonely piece of land two kilometers from Nyeri town that is surrounded by factories and coffee estates with the River Chania at the bottom.Mr Gachanja, a born-again Christian, says in the beginning he was afraid that the lodge members might be bad people who worshipped the devil.

At the opening ceremony for the new lodge, his hands trembled as he was served rice and chunks of well-cooked meat he was afraid to eat because he feared it could be human flesh. So he only ate the rice and wrapped the pieces of meat in paper. Later he took them to Nyeri Provincial General Hospital where he asked a laboratory technician friend to run some tests.

When it was confirmed that the meat was from goats, cows and chickens, his doubts began to dissipate.

As time went by, Mr Gachanja was able to learn many of the things members do during their services that are conducted once a month and nine times a year.“After keenly watching them conduct their services, I came to realise the rumours that the members worship the devil are untrue since they read from holy books of various religions including the Bible, the Koran and Hindu scripts,” he said.

But whenever Mr Gachanja attended his church, people would distance themselves from him so he stopped going until he found another one where he said the pastor sympathises with his dilemma and has embraced him into the congregation. Still, when he goes to nearby King’ong’o shopping centre, people point at him and whisper.

Devil worshipper

“People in my neighbourhood think I worship the devil and do not want to have anything to do with me, not even transact business,” he said. As a result, he is forced to travel to Nyeri town to shop in the supermarkets where only a few people know him.

Mr Gachanja said he often finds people praying at the gate of the lodge compound in a bid to cast out “evil spirits”, but when he opens the gate for them to enter, they flee.During his time at the lodge, there have been two break-ins and one act of attempted arson.

Last week, unidentified people broke into the lodge and tried to burn the holy books that were locked in a metal box.He said many people believe there are safes full of money and gold in the lodge, just like in banks. He rubbishes this claim and another that the lodge is full of big snakes that are used in rituals.

“If there were safes full of money and gold, I would not be struggling to live because I would also have stolen a little and sold it just to make my life comfortable, but that is not the case.”There is a lot of work to be done on the six-acre piece of land, Mr Gachanja says, and he thinks he should earn more than the monthly Sh7,000 he is now paid; he would like to triple the amount since he says he takes care of everything.

Mr Gachanja insists that lodge members are not bad people to work for and, even when they are at loggerheads, they still sort things out.And he makes a point of refuting the rumour that when the new lodge was being built, a skull was placed in the foundation.

“I was there when the entire building was being put up; it is made purely of stones—nothing more,” he said.