BY
REAGAN NYADIMO
From
seeking God’s intervention in order to get remarkable grades, healing broken
hearts to finding a God fearing companion are some of the various reasons “campuserians”
join religious groups. Indeed, the sole purpose of religious groups being
to inculcate moral values and development of a feeling that one belongs to a
community of believers is attained when these needs are woven and targeted
towards service to humanity and the community at large. It is therefore,
worrying, devastating and disheartening when religious groups begin to house a
congregation whose mission is a threat the positive virtues expected from them.
Njeri
(real name withheld) who is a member of Kenyatta University Christian Union
confessed to this writer how she suffered under the arms of a fellow student
whom she thought was God fearing. She narrates how she was approached by a
humble young student to begin a relationship with him .She had seen him a
number of times in the church and he was even proposed for a top seat in the
church but failed to make it after the ballots were tallied. Since one of
her main qualities in looking for a man was one who was God fearing, she gave in
after a month long pursuit from the Engineering student. She recalls how the
relationship blossomed and everybody admired her new-found blessing. She
vividly remembers how “keshas”
became something to look forward to. Bible study became a must-attend while
community outreach became an interesting event until she gave away her dignity.
It was after breaking her innocence that the third year Engineering student
begun to mistreat her. The blue-eyed and heavily- muscled student began
avoiding church functions and became hostile. It was after months of emotional
torture that she realized the intentions of the student and moved on but swore
never to get into a relationship with church goers and those of a similar kind.
Mary,
a second year student at Nairobi University echoes the same sentiments. After
months of dating a pharmacy student whom she met during bible study sessions,
he changed tack and became hostile to her the following day, after spending the night at his room immediately
after evening prayers on that day. She narrates her story, one
filled with emotion and mixed with tears, how the pharmaceutical student
manhandled her, beat her up before chasing her out of his room when she
attempted to reconcile her relationship.
Kassim
Oyoo, a former chairman of the Christian Union at Kanga Boys High School and
currently a student at Maseno University agrees that such cases are on the rise
in the modern campus setting. The strong devout member of the Christian Union
at Maseno University says that a good number of young, God-fearing campus
ladies are shying away from genuine, God fearing campus men after going through
untold physical and emotional suffering. He reveals that even the core
leadership in many campus religious groups has not been spared either. In his
own group, quite a substantial number of leaders have been expelled because of
having sexual escapades with vulnerable worshipers and their actions led to a
huge outcry from members of the congregation.
A
former student of Kenyatta University awaiting graduation in December this year,
who was also a leader of the Praise and worship team at Kenyatta University
Christian Union (KUCU) was the guest to a significant number of female members
of his group to his room in Nyayo 6. A sizable number usually spent the night
at his place on the eve of main events such as “Kesha” night, mega prayer nights or after late night bible study
sessions including Sunday after mass. His roommate, who was in second year by
them told this writer that the Alumni to be experienced
a lot of earthly pleasures with a number of these ladies. What worried him most
was the high number of female students put under his care as he was
still
amongst the trusted leaders in his group and he still keeps in touch with most
of them.
The
former praise and worship leader, the Engineering and the Pharmaceutical
students are just but select group of examples detailing the rot present in religious
groups on campus. This vice practiced by the so called men of God in campus
using
deceptive
tactics targeting vulnerable students who are true worshipers of Christ is perhaps one
of the many reasons thousands of
campuserians dislike religious groups and are reluctant to attend any of
their meetings in several campuses countrywide. Just how far has this rot been
entrenched in our campuses and colleges?
I’ll
let you be the judge of that.
The
writer is the managing editor writers Guild.
