Kiserian: a church infrastructure of future-making
Kiserian, also known as Loiminange (Little 1992: 15), and not to be confused with the larger Kiserian town in Kajiado county, lies on the southeastern shores of Lake Baringo, at about 25 km east of Marigat town, a market centre located about 270 km north of Nairobi.
1 In 1900, the British colonial administration established their administrative post in Loiminange (today known as Kiserian), until around 1910, when they moved their post to Mukutani to improve security and policing for this volatile area (Anderson 1989: 252–4). Presently inhabited by Il Chamus, it is close to the grazing lands east of Lake Baringo, which were at different times in history claimed by Il Chamus and neighbouring Pokot groups for their cattle. Over the last fifteen years, Il Chamus families in the zone east of the lake have been exposed to recurrent raids by groups of Pokot, which has made the area unsafe to inhabit. Because of its proximity, Kiserian has become a refuge for families fleeing from insecurity in the zone east of Lake Baringo, mostly from Rugus and Mukutani.
Under current conditions of relative precarity, several Christian Protestant denominations in Kiserian offer much-needed opportunities to make a future. Apart from the ubiquitous infrastructure of the African Inland Church (AIC), the Dominion Church, King’s Outreach Holiness and Prosperity, and African Gospel Church (AGC) offer spaces for socializing and mutual support. The AIC mission, perched on top of a hill on the shore of Lake Baringo and run by Kenyan pastors, draws on a solid infrastructure to grant material improvement and physical well-being to residents of the area, and to offer Il Chamus displaced families a new place to live.
2 Since 2005, many Il Chamus families have been displaced due to conflicts with neighbouring Pokot pastoralists. Armed attacks by Pokot young men in border areas east of Lake Baringo have caused Il Chamus families to flee and resettle in Kiserian and further south (Greiner 2013; Little 2019). The infrastructure comprises a cement church building, a health dispensary, a maternity ward, and dormitories for visitors, all built on the site of the Loiminange colonial administrative post; and a secondary school with dormitories, built near the Kiserian commercial centre, which consists of a few small shops. AIC dormitories and church structures served as shelter for displaced families that also received financial and logistical support to build new homesteads in the area. Reception of this aid, health care or enrolment at the missionary school are not made dependent on conversion to Christianity. Still, the support offered by the AIC mission draws recipients into the orbit of the church, which is mirrored in the recognition and respect the AIC personnel enjoy in the wider population. To the residents of the area around Kiserian, healthcare and education opportunities provided by the AIC are existential; people travel long distances to reach the maternity ward, consult with AIC-hired health professionals, and get medical supplies. Since 1990, the Secondary School and dormitories, built at the initiative of the South African missionaries Lorna Eglin and Betty Allcock, with support of the Office of President Arap Moi (himself a devout AIC member),
has spurred secondary-level school enrolment of boys and girls.
3 Its forerunner was the Loiminange Primary School, opened in 1963 by African Inland missionaries.Activities of the AIC pastors and catechists include preaching in Sunday church services, travelling long distances to evangelize, and organizing annual or biannual events for youth, such as ‘church camps’ and circumcision ceremonies offered as an alternative to traditional ceremonies so that youth could become recognized as full-fledged members of adult society.
To dedicated church members, many of them women, the AIC mission also promises stable employment and positions of respect within the broader community, promises that are directly related to school education. Because secondary education allows students to obtain employment by the state administration or another salaried appointment, these promises are particularly important for girls and women. The AIC mission also offers a modest but steady salary to catechists, teachers, and healthcare personnel.
The AIC mission thus attracts people to Christianity not through aggressive evangelizing, but by offering a future of greater material security, prosperity, ‘growth’ and well-being to believers, their families, and the wider community.