The Kibera Experience
Pastor Imbumi and Martha Makuku in their own words.

Q: Pastor Makuku, what drew you to work in the slum areas of Nairobi?
Pastor Imbumi Makuku: I [helped] a missionary go into the slums to preach, to translate, and also to evangelize the people, and so after helping him out for about a year I realized. that slowly but surely, the call to minister amongst the urban poor of Nairobi. ... When he left I continued in the church that we had begun together. So it was not any bolt from heaven or a thunderous voice from heaven, but it was just exposure to working with the urban poor, [who] constitute more than 60 percent of Nairobi’s population. So the need for working there is really, really great.

Q: Tell us about the Kibera slum.
Imbumi: Kibera is one of the largest slums in sub-Saharan in Africa ... with a conservative estimate of around 700,000 people. Some go as high as 1.2 million. That’s where we have begun our work in April 2002.

Q: Tell us about your church.
Imbumi: Well, the call to go back to church planting came because I realized that to be able to train pastors who work in the slums, I needed to have firsthand experience of the work, and so when we began the church it was actually after quite some concerted times of prayer, and the Lord opened the door for us ... . We have an AIDS support group that meets every Tuesday, and we have a sponsorship program targeting about 300 children, then a sponsorship program for high-school children and also college students and also vocational training. So we are basically focused on doing a wide and deep ministry preaching the gospel in all its fullness, displaying the Lord Jesus Christ, in all His glory, but also putting flesh to what we preach by reaching out in deeds of mercy to the people.

Q: How much has AIDS impacted the Kibera community? How are you ministering to those with AIDS?
Imbumi: Well, the urban poor actually bear the brunt of the AIDS pandemic, so the national average right now with the statistics that were given on World AIDS Day is for the whole of Kenya; the present rate is 5.9 (per 100 people), but in the slums we work unofficially with the estimate of one in three adults. The median age for men now in Kenya is 46 years and in the slums you basically do not get anybody above 46 years, because they have all died. So the toll has been very heavy. In my first two years I buried over 10 people who had died of AIDS. We have lost about six-seven children who have died of AIDS. We just lost one more about a week ago.

Q: How does the church minister to someone with AIDS differently than other organizations?
Imbumi: The church ministering to people dying of AIDS has been the missing link in the fight against AIDS ... . What the church basically has been doing is give the spiritual nurture to the people, teach the Bible, counsel them, ask them to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, and then also to show the fruit of working with Christ so that they are no longer living lives that are promiscuous and that they are faithful to their wife, and for the young people that they are also abstaining and that they are depending on the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to give them a way from a life of high sexuality. So we basically bring the demands of the gospel to bear on the community without compromising, and also without being judgmental.

Q: What happens to children when a breadwinner gets AIDS?
Imbumi: When a breadwinner gets AIDS in our context, the child basically drops out of school because they become the primary caregiver for the family, and usually it is the girls who bear the brunt of it because they have to do the cooking, they have to draw the water. They’re the ones who begin to do small businesses selling vegetables or fish and be taking on the adult role that their guardian or parent used to do, and in some cases also the children are farmed out to different relatives. ...So you find that the family structure becomes destroyed, and what the church has tried to do is through the sponsorship program encourage the extended family that is taking care of the orphans to do so, so that the children are not split up.

Q: Does the church in Kibera experience persecution?
Imbumi: Yes, the church does experience a lot of persecution, and it is mostly spiritual persecution because the tribal culture in Kibera is very strong. People still worship the tribal gods. They still sacrifice to the ancestors and all over the place you see the medicine men advertising all the kind of diseases they are able to heal, and so the spiritual oppression in Kibera is very, very strong, and that is coupled also with a Muslim presence, because the Bible is very clear that there is only one God, the Lord God Jehovah, and any other gods are actually demons that people do worship and sacrifice to. So the spiritual oppression is very, very strong and we as a church have borne the brunt of that.

Q: What is your vision for the church in Nairobi or in Kibera?
Imbumi: Our vision for the church in Kibera, once we have an assistant pastor, is to begin some five more churches in Kibera spread all over so that we have very solid preaching of the Word and also a very solid work of mercy reaching out to the needs of the community, and also use that as a base to train, especially young men, to be able to go out into all of Kenya, the urban areas, and replicate the work there.

Q: How can your brothers and sisters in the U.S. best help the church here?
Imbumi: Well our brothers and sisters in America can continue to help us by praying for us first and foremost, because we are on [the] frontlines in ministry, reaching the urban poor, who are actually going to be the major population segment in Third World missions because that’s their foothold when they come to the slums, and so please continue to pray for us that God Himself may be seen, that His glory may be seen, and then also come and visit, work alongside us out here for a week or so. Just pray together with us, see what the Lord is doing and because of your firsthand contact with what is happening out here and then ... come, see, look, then pray and ask how the Lord may want you to be involved in the work that we are doing here.

Q: Martha, tell us about the shelter—how it got started, how long ago, and what it’s doing right now.
Mrs. Martha Makuku: The Shunem shelter began about three years ago. When we went into Kibera, we were not thinking of starting a shelter. And our shelter is more like a children’s home, but we call it a shelter because it attempts to rescue girls in vulnerable situations. And so when we went into Kibera and as we evangelized and did outreach programs, we were faced with situations where girls would come to faith in Christ, but they were living in rather abusive or vulnerable situations. Like I remember the first three who came to the shelter. One of them was a 14-year-old. Her mother had been buying milk from a milk dealer for about a year. The mother was not able to come up with the money to pay for the milk. And so the easiest way out for the mother was to give her 14-year-old daughter to this man to clear the debt. And when this fourteen-year-old came to faith in one of the camps, she didn’t want to go back to the same situation. Here was a mother who was pressurizing her to get married to the milk man, but she also had come to faith in Christ. And the second one was born out of wedlock, and the situation back home was not very good because of the step-father and the mother. And it seemed like her relationship with the father was not very healthy. And so she needed to be rescued. The third one, her mother was very much involved in witchcraft, and she also needed to leave the environment.

Q: How many girls are at the shelter now?
Martha: We have 17 girls in the shelter. Every time we come across a girl in an abusive situation, it adds to the number. And the shelter right now is actually pretty small for 17 girls, but it’s difficult when we come to a girl who needs to be rescued, like a girl who is molested or who has been left under an abusive guardian after their parents have died. It’s very hard for us to leave them in those situations. The age range is from 17 years, and the youngest is five years.

Q: Is there a house parent or housemother who lives with the girls.
Martha: At the shelter we have three housemothers who take care of the children in the shelter who also make sure that there is an intense discipleship program like counseling, so to speak. Someone the girls can talk to when they need to talk. And especially as they go through the healing of past experiences. And also to make sure that they do their homework, they follow the rules. What we have realized, most of the children in the shelter come from dysfunctional families, so mainly they come with lack of knowledge of any family structure, any values, so to speak, and very, very hardened in their own ways. So the housemothers mold characters through biblical teaching, holding them accountable, and, you know, things that parents would do for children.

Q: What are your future plans? What’s your vision for the home and rescuing more of these girls from tough situations?
Martha: Our plans for the future actually involve getting a bigger place for the home or for the shelter for the girls. We realize as we continue to serve and as we continue to work that the need to rescue more girls is there because, like I said earlier, right now, we are full to capacity, and we keep coming across girls who need to be rescued. But we are not in a position to do that right now. So our future plans really consist of looking for a larger place for the girls. And the shelter we have right now has worked as a test case because we have seen healing take place. We have seen transformation take place. And we have seen girls who could not otherwise have done better academically, doing better in the shelter. And we have also seen kids who are not very gifted academically, but they can benefit from skill development. So what we pray for is a land where we can have a structure for the shelter, a structure for skill development like vocational training—could be catering, seamstress training, dressmaking. All these things so that those who can excel academically, we allow them to excel to the highest level they can. And those who are gifted in skill can also excel in skill development.

Q: Do these girls attend your church in Kibera?
Martha: We have come across most of the girls in the shelter, through the ministry of our church, through the program for the kids who are in substance abuse, through the child sponsorship program. So the girls in the shelter mainly come as our outreach in the church.

Q: Tell us about some of the girls.
Martha: I’ll give you the story of Neva, who is seven years old. Neva was adopted by the brother to her father when he died, and until when she was six, life was good. But the uncle started to molest her really, really badly ... . And because she was involved in our church school, we noticed that she wasn’t working right. Her ears were oozing. She was withdrawn, and she was this unhappy child. And we talked to her and tried to find out what was happening. She disclosed what was going on in her life, and we thanked God we had a shelter because we were able to take her to a good medical center, and we were able to rescue her immediately. I am very happy to report that after one year of proper medical check-ups, she has responded very well. She’s continuing to heal, and we’ve really seen God restoring her childhood. Another case is of our 14-year-old who was left under the care of her auntie who took advantage of her, and married her off to a 50-year-old man. And I think this old man stayed with her like for a week, but she found a way of escaping and went to a member of our church. And it’s through the ministry of the church that we came to know about this particular case. We were able to step in and rescue her and bring her to the shelter. She is still struggling some because of the issues with her auntie and trust and all that. But we are also very thankful to report that through the ministry of the church, the counseling, and the care and love that has been, you know, showered upon her through the shelter, she has also responded very, very well.

Q: Tell us about your housemothers.
Martha: In the shelter we have three housemothers who do a wonderful job. They are very caring. They are very loving to the children. We have Purity, Mary, and Caroline. Caroline grew up in Kibera. She’s a firm Christian. She’s a wonderful lady. You just need to watch her interact with those kids, and she knows what their background out there is like, and so she’s able to bring, you know, all these other aspects that no one else could bring the way she does. And then we have Mary who is very prayerful. Who is able to disciple these children in a very good way. She’s able to come down to their level. Play their games. Laugh their laugh. Dance their dance. And that builds something that, to these children, you know, builds trust, and, you know, she brings just another aspect in the shelter. Then we have Purity who has been with us for the last two months. Also very good, very gifted in administrative skills and really, really able to hold those children accountable in all that they do.

Q: What is it like as a mother seeing the struggles these children experience?
Martha: As a mother ... it’s very difficult. When I go to Kibera ... and I see [that the women are most] affected and infected by the AIDS virus ... and also seeing the girls following in the same steps, it’s kind of discouraging. But I am very thankful because when the Word of God goes out there and the Holy Spirit, then it reaches us at all our levels. And it has been very encouraging to see the lives of the women in the church transformed. But also, as a mother, seeing the lives of the few girls who are in the shelter being, you know, changed forever. That has been a very great encouragement for me. And it’s very rewarding. I wouldn’t ask for anything more.

Click here to donate to the Makukus ministry in Nairobi, Kenya.

Click here to donate to the Shunem Shelter girls' home.

Return to Nairobi, Kenya page