Elijah Masinde, son of Nameme the future prophet, founded Dini ya Msambwa when he left the Friends’ Church in 1935 after the church objected to his plans to take a second wife, a Ugandan. He had married his first wife Sarah Nanyama in a wedding conducted by the Friends Church in 1932.

Eventually he married a second wife and the Quakers expelled him from church. He then left home to work as a guard at the Bungoma Law Courts. He later married four other wives; the youngest is 60-year-old Gladys Masinde.

Dini ya Musambwa, which means the Religion of Ancestral Spirits, was widespread among the Bukusus in western Kenya and eastern Uganda as well as among the Pokot. It was founded by Prophet Elijah Masinde in 1936 and was later banned by the government in 1968 for anti-Christian teachings and breech of peace.

Elijah Masinde was born around 1910 in present-day Kimilili at the time when the Bukusu area was called Kitosh. He became a Quaker (Friends’ Church) where he learned how to read the Bible and write. He also enjoyed stories from the Old Testament. He was a strong man with good football skills. He represented Kenya Colony against Uganda in 1930 Gossage Cup.

Masinde is revered as a prophet who prophesied many things that came to pass by his followers. He is reported to have said that the leadership (read presidency) for Luhyas will come through the lake (Lake Victoria or Luos). There is also a legend that he kicked a ball up in the air and it was never seen again. The referee called off the match because balls were few in those days.

He became an avid reader of The Old testament where he loved the narratives of war. This formed the basis of Dini ya Musambwa which was a blend of Bukusu customs and doctrines from different churches. The pre-eminence of the cross was borrowed from Catholics while they also marched like Salvation Army members. They prayed facing Mt. Elgon.

One day Masinde refused to salute a white colonial officer walking by the court precincts as was the custom. That was the beginning of his rebellion to the white man's rule. He began to attract the attention of Bukusus who were not happy with colonialists.

The sect went unnoticed or was ignored until 1944 when the government embarked on eradicating a weed in Bukusu land. A colonial agricultural officer was leading the uprooting of the weed. Masinde objected to the officer accessing his farm. Later, the officer’s house was burned down to ashes.

Masinde then mobilised Bukusus against enlistment into the British army to fight the Second World War. According to him, Africans had no business fighting a white man’s war.

He was arrested in 1945 and asked to sign a Sh500 bond to keep the peace. He declined to sign and was sent to prison. While in prison he became troublesome, leading to his admission at Mathari Hospital in Nairobi where he was declared of unsound mind.

He returned to Bukusu (North Nyanza) in 1947 where he began to address large crowds. He asked Bukusus to make home-made guns secretly for use in driving out the colonialists. He went to Lugulu around where Chetambe is.

Chetambe is the site of the Bukusu fortified village where colonial officer and later Kavirondo Provincial Commissioner, Charles Hobley, had led a band of Buganda and Nubian mercenaries in an onslaught to subdue defiant Bukusus rejecting colonial rule.

Masinde wanted to go and exorcise the demons of that defeat. He conducted an oathing ceremony for about 5,000 followers. He then asked the people to wait for a word from God on how to get rid of Europeans.

Masinde’s followers were also against Bukusus who had converted to Christianity. In early February 1948 they threatened to burn down a Roman Catholic Church.

Another crowd later attacked Malakisi police station. However, he did not participate in these acts but the government attributed them to him.

Lucas Pikech was born in 1915 in Kapenguria where he later joined the Catholic Church. In 1942, he attended government school in Kabete. He returned to Kapenguria and in 1946 travelled to Bukusu land where he met Masinde and converted to Dini ya Musambwa. He went back home and began seeking converts into his new religion. He was killed in April 1950 at a confrontation with police officers during a prayer meeting.

On February 16, 1948 Masinde was arrested at his home after a manhunt and sent to prison in Lamu and immediately Dini ya Msambwa was banned.

He is still revered among the Bukusu and his gravesite in Maeni, Bungoma is a shrine where his admirers and followers visit every year.

 

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