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Kenya

From Bahaipedia
 Kenya
The Matunda Soy House of Worship.
Location of Kenya
National AssemblyKenya
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[2] 53,005,614
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source 25-30,000[1] 
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 490,984
History:
Firsts
 -  Pioneers 1945, Marguerite Preston 
 -  Local Assembly 1953, Nairobi 
 -  National Assembly 1964 
Official Website https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/kenya
Related media
Categories: Kenya • People

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Swahili and English are its official languages and Christianity is the predominant religion.

The region has been inhabited since prehistory and began to be colonized by European nations in the 19th century. In 1895 the British Empire established the East Africa Protectorate which encompassed Kenya and it became the Colony of Kenya in 1920. Kenya became an independent nation in 1963.

The Bahá’í Faith was first present in Kenya in 1945 with a community being established in the early 1950s. The community has developed up to the present with the first local Bahá’í House of Worship in Africa being opened in the country in 2021. The Kenyan Bahá’í community currently has 180 Local Spiritual Assemblies.[3]

History[edit]

The first Bahá’í to live in Kenya was Marguerite Preston, an English Bahá’í, who moved to Sotik in 1945 after marrying Terence Preston who owned a tea growing business in the country and she lived in the country until her passing in 1952.[4] In 1951 Ted Cardell and Philip Hainsworth pioneered to Nairobi also from England,[5][6] and by the following year the American Bahá’í community was aiming to send pioneers to assist in developing a Bahá’í community.[7][8] Frederick and Elizabeth Laws pioneered to Nairobi in 1953,[9] as did Aziz Yazdi and his family and several others.[10] Through the work of the early pioneers the community began to grow and the Local Spiritual Assembly of Nairobi was established in 1953.[11]

In 1954 the National Spiritual Assembly of Central & Africa was established which had jurisdiction over the Bahá’í community of Kenya,[12] and in 1955 eight Local Spiritual Assemblies were established across Kenya,[13] with an additional three formed in 1957.[14]

Growth continued into the 1960's and by 1963 there were one hundred and eighteen Local Spiritual Assemblies in Kenya.[15] In 1961 Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited Nairobi shortly after dedicating the Uganda House of Worship and she laid the cornerstone for a Bahá’í Centre in the city.[16] The growth in the region lead to the dissolution of the Central and East Africa Assembly and the establishment of the independent National Spiritual Assembly of Kenya in 1964.[17] The community continued to rapidly expand in the mid-1960's reaching five hundred and six Local Spiritual Assemblies by 1968.[18] Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited Kenya in 1969 early in her extensive teaching tour of Africa and she visited again in 1973 at the close of her tour.[19]

In June 1972 a major teaching Conference was held in Nairobi which was attended by 250 Bahá’ís to discuss the pursuit of the goals of the Nine Year Plan,[20] and in 1973 the Bahá’ís of Kenya undertook a one year local teaching plan. In 1974 the Five Year Plan of the Universal House of Justice was launched in Kenya by Enoch Olinga,[21] and that year a Bahá’í National Committee for Women and Children with four Bahá’í women's conferences held in 1975.[22]

Throughout the mid-1970's several Local Spiritual Assemblies lapsed and the community established three Bahá’í institutes and began conducting correspondence courses to deepen and consolidate the community, with development of a Bahá’í community life being slow in comparison to the numerical growth of the community.[23] In October, 1976, Kenya hosted an Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Nairobi,[24] at which Hands of the Cause William Sears, Enoch Olinga, Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir, and John Robarts spoke.[25] William Sears visited Kenya to address another major teaching conference in 1983.[26]

In 1985 a National Bahá’í Youth Conference was held in Kenya, and in May that year Bahá’í youth of Nairobi began a tree planting project in the Ngong Hills where the Government had requested reforestation efforts.[27] In the late 1980's the Bahá’í community of Kenya collaborated with the Canadian Public Health Association to establish the Social Mobilization for Immunization public health programme in Kenya which aimed to promote immunization in the country.[28] In December, 1989, an Africa for Peace festival was held in Nairobi sponsored by the Kenyan Bahá’í community,[29] and in December 1999 an International Bahá’í Youth Conference was held in Nairobi.[30]

In 1997 the first Ruhi Institute courses to be held in East Africa were held in Nakuru, Kenya,[31] and in the 2000's the institute process began to become well established in Kenya with over 1,000 people having become Ruhi tutors in the Tiriki West region of the country between 2005 and 2008.[32] In 2008 a major Bahá’í Regional Conference was held in Nakuru to discuss the establishment of intensive programmes of growth in the area. Members of the International Teaching Centre Uransaikhan Baatar and Rachel Ndegwa, a Kenyan Bahá’í, addressed the Conference.[33]

In 2013 a major international youth conference was held in Matunda Soy,[34] with the Universal House of Justice having announced a local House of Worship was to be established there the previous year.[35] As of 2017 the Kenyan Bahá’í community had between 25 and 30 thousand adult members with the size possibly being 40,000 if children are included with Joy Mboya, a Kenyan Bahá’í, noting that consolidation of the extreme growth of the community in the 1960's and 1970's, which had lead to estimates of up to 400,000 Bahá’ís, had been challenging.[1]

In 2018 the design of the Matunda Soy House of Worship was unveiled,[36] and in 2019 a groundbreaking ceremony was held.[37] In 2020 construction was also launched of a large educational facility in the village of Namawanga by the Bahá’í community.[38] In 2021 the House of Worship in Matunda Soy was dedicated and officially opened.[39]

As of the present day Kenya has 180 Local Spiritual Assemblies and is involved in the social and economic development of the country, particularly through promoting healthcare and supporting the development of practical skills such as weaving. The Bahá’í inspired organization The Livelihood Foundation is also active in providing health care and health education, for example on AIDS, in the country.[40]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Katherine Marshall 2017, A Discussion with Joy Mboya, Executive Director of the Godown Arts Centre
  2. ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  3. ↑ https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/kenya
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 255, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ Baha'i News (1951). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 250, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 256, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 257, Pg(s) 10. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 258, Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 259, Pg(s) 11. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ Baha'i News (1953). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 265, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ Baha'i News (1953). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 267, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ Baha'i News (1954). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 285, Pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ Baha'i News (1955). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 295, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ Baha'i News (1957). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 314, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1970). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 13 (1954-1963), Pg(s) 287. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ Baha'i News (1963). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 382, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 96. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 147. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 588. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 204. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 144. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 145. View as PDF.
  23. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 145. View as PDF.
  24. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 112. View as PDF.
  25. ↑ Baha'i News (1977). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 552, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  26. ↑ Baha'i News (1983). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 622, Pg(s) 16. View as PDF.
  27. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 302. View as PDF.
  28. ↑ Baha'i News (1990). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 706, Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
  29. ↑ Baha'i News (1990). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 708, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  30. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2001). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 28 (1999-2000), Pg(s) 53. View as PDF.
  31. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1999). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 26 (1997-1998), Pg(s) 92. View as PDF.
  32. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/630/
  33. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/nakuru.html
  34. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/matundasoy.html
  35. ↑ https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20120421_001/1#479680085
  36. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1251/slideshow/11/
  37. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1317/slideshow/4/
  38. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1400/
  39. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1511/
  40. ↑ https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/kenya

References[edit]

External links[edit]

  • Kenya at Curlie (formerly DMOZ)
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