Police arrest 57 followers of controversial church in Rongo

Police have arrested 57 followers of St Joseph Messiah Mission of Africa Church a day after they rescued them from the church.

This is after the followers of the church refused to go to their respective homes and join their families.

Migori County Commissioner Kisilu Mutua who led a security team in addressing the Press at Rongo Police Station said that they released the faithful to reunite with their families but they refused.

“We are holding 57 people and they are people who are not logical,” Mr Mutua said.

The County Commissioner said the church’s followers showed signs of people who have been brainwashed and are subjective towards their faith.

“When you turn a church area into burial grounds and you don’t accept medical checkup, it tells a lot. We took them to the hospital and they were quite hostile to the doctors,” he said.

Mutua who declared the church a scene of crime revealed that it had been operating without being registered.

Instead, police were presented with a certificate of a registered company.

However, faithful declined to disclose the directors of the company or their leaders.

“We can’t assume that it was a coincidence. Somebody knew what they were doing, registered a company and we are perusing all those grounds,” Mutua said.

Already, the security team has moved to court to secure exhumation orders that would help them establish the number of people buried within the church compound.

Mutua who thanked the security team for acting fast, said public health officers who had been sent to assess the condition of the church established that the faithful lived in one common room and shared toilets, which are full.

It was also established that the area was not a designated cemetery but rather a swampy area and was not habitable.

The administrator said the faithful were better off at the station than what their faith had subjected them to.

“They would be here than where they were,” Mutua said.

Followers of the church who chanted and sang religious songs at the police station rejected relief food offered to them on April 23, 2025 and insisted that they only wanted ugali.

The attention of police was drawn to the church after the death of a GSU officer three weeks ago.

The GSU officer whose family moved to court to seek exhumation orders was buried within the church’s compound without due process being followed.

Police investigations were ongoing before another incident happened at the church on April 20, 2025.

“When police got there, members told them that they wanted to bury the man at the place,” Mutua said.

The church has since been closed temporarily as police seek closure orders from court.

Arrested followers of the church, excluding children will be arraigned in court on April 24, 2025.

Mutua emphasized that the children rescued from the alleged cult teaching would receive appropriate care, as officers trained in such matters are overseeing their well-being.