Bishop Charles Gadi was patiently waiting for us at a city hotel. He was dressed in his traditional white mass vestments to represent purity and triumph. He was wearing a gold episcopal ring on his left ring finger, a red zucchetto, a crosier, and a silver pectoral cross around his neck.
For Bishop Gadi, the leader of Tanzania's Good News for All Ministry, this was no ordinary press conference; he had flown into the country to make a special announcement.
"I am in the country to offer special prayers to God to bring rain into the country and the Horn of Africa to end the biting drought that is still ravaging the region," Bishop Gadi said.
There were four glasses on the table labelled Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Indian Ocean. The fourth was titled Amazon Forest.
He then poured the water from the glasses into a glass jar and added anointing oil to it. Dr. Gadi poured the water from the jar onto a tray of laminated paper with a green image of the Kenyan map.
He then smeared the anointing on a collage of President William Ruto, his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, and the entire cabinet.
Bishop Gadi also applied the anointing oil to another collage featuring images of Ruto and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu.
"When a need arises, like the drought the region is currently facing, we call rain from all the world and transfer it to the East African region.
"There is already rain in the spiritual realm, bringing richness to Kenya as God promised," said Bishop Gadi.
"Prepare your farms for a planting season as the rains will be plentiful," he continued. Prepare water runways so that heavy rains do not devastate them.
"No animals will perish or livelihoods will be lost as a result of Kenya's prolonged drought."
He said his prayers for the country were inspired by Ephesians 3: 8: "Although I am the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given to me, to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ."
Due to the ongoing drought in over 23 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) counties, over 4.5 million Kenyans are in desperate need of food aid, with nearly a million children aged nine to 59 months malnourished.
Another 134,000 lactating women are also malnourished and in need of treatment in the drought-hit counties.
According to Bishop Gadi, drought had seen water catchment areas in the country to dry, thousands off animals dead and brought abject poverty to the affected communities, saying after the prayers he held in the country for four days, that will be a thing of the past.
