Cleric behind the ‘miracle babies’ reveals how he rose to fame and fortune

• Archbishop lifts the veil to reveal dark side of our churches

My first church was called Salvation of Jesus Christ Church, which I started in 1976. It was here that I became a pastor and a man who knew how to preach.

So I can say I have been a pastor since my son Amos was born. In this church in Kibera Laini Saba, I had about 300 members.

I was then rich and a landlord. I had quality members. Private Ochuka who led the failed 1982 coup was my member among others. It was good.

My church ministry expanded to other parts of the city of Nairobi and we had branches in Pumwani, Kasarani, Kibo, and Kibera among other places. All these were poor parts of the city as these are the people that I could reach out to.

The sad story was that the Kenyan government then refused to register my church – Salvation of Jesus Christ. I therefore run this ministry until 1980 without any legal registration. By then I had so many branches especially in Western Kenya and Nyanza that I could not manage to administer. But a saviour was on the way.

Unknown to me in 1980, there was a man then living in Mombasa, who had heard so much about me that he decided to look for me. My fame of miracles had already started taking root.

Maurice Ouma Arao was clever, cunning and very convincing. I liked him at the first sight. He managed to convince me to become a part of his ministry.

He had the education and connections but he did not have any churches. So we decided to register a ministry together – United International Life Ministry of Churches (UILMC) World Mission.

Using my influence with the Provincial Commissioner of Nairobi, Fred Waiganjo, for whom I was managing houses in Kibera. We jointly registered this ministry with Arao being the chairman and I the secretary of the organisation, UILMC.

You cannot believe that Arao was sleeping in my table room on my settee as we registered this organisation.

From here we started working together. He managed the organisation and I did the administration. The ministry expanded all over Kenya. I hear now it is all over East Africa and beyond. I was in charge of Dioceses of Nairobi.

Each region in Kenya had someone who was managing it. We expanded. Others who had their regions included the late John Ndolo of Kisumu, Western Kenya and Bishop Peter Okalo from Nyakach also Western Kenya who was Arao’s deputy.

Coups are not only limited to governments. During this time a coup was planned by one of the members to overthrow Archbishop Arao. He wanted to kill him to take over the leadership of the organisation but I fouled the operation by informing Arao what was happening.

Now it was after this incident that this clever man decided I should become a bishop. So Maurice Ouma Arao went to America as was habit. He had told us that the ministry was registered in USA which I later discovered was not the case.

He came back accompanied by two white Americans, Hall Adams and Bill White. As you know when a white man appears at a meeting or in churches in Kenya it’s as though the power of the holy God has come down. So Arao commanded more respect from us.

It was in 1980 that he decided that I needed to be promoted to the office of the Bishop. Dan my second son was a baby then. I remember the Kisumu YMCA hall was packed, and all the men and women of the cloth were there.

As I sat down for the ceremony to be conducted, Arao was looking very big surrounded by the white Americans. It was this tactic that helped a lot to keep the church in check and in command. It was very intimidating.

As Archbishop Maurice Arao rose to speak, the congregation went wild with cheers, praises and sounds of joy. He was loved by the people.