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And now, miracle Aids cure
More articles on this topic: Salvation Healing Ministry / Lucy NdutaAfter the Deya babies, it’s Nduta’s faith healing for Sh400,000 [$5511]
An evangelical church claims to be offering Aids patients a “miracle” cure – but in exchange for a tithe (offering) of between Sh200,000 and Sh400,000.
Patients interviewed by the Sunday Nation recounted how, in desperation, they sold property or borrowed money to pay for prayers.
A patient is first required to pay Sh1,000 in registration fee for the special prayers. Those who are unregistered get general prayers kama watu wengine kanisani (like other church-goers), according to a pastor.
He told the Sunday Nation that the fee is intended to reduce the number of people being seen by the “prophetess,” who gives the special prayers.
We were accompanied by two HIV-positive volunteers.
After the prayers, patients are taken for an Aids test at a clinic at Afya Centre in downtown Nairobi.
An independent test
They are accompanied by a church elder who receives the results and takes them back to the self-styled prophetess. If a patient has planted a seed (paid the tithe) the prophetess announces to them that they are cured.
However, two patients who said they paid hundreds of thousands of shillings in tithe complained that when they went for an independent test at another centre, they were found to still have the virus.
But Ms Lucy Nduta, the prophetess and leader of the Salvation Healing Ministry, maintains that her prayers work. She claims to have received “the gift of healing” when she was “prophesied for and prayed for” by an unnamed “woman of God” in 1992.
“In this church alone I have more than 200 people who were HIV-positive, but whom I prayed for and changed their status,” she told the Sunday Nation at her church, based in a Kenya Railways godown in Nairobi. The church on Haile Selassie Avenue has a branch in Kawangware.
The prophetess also has a weekly, half-hour TV programme. The registration is renewable every year, but does not guarantee one an appointment with the prophetess, who is in great demand.
She sees clients from Tuesday to Friday every week and preaches on Sundays, but rests on Mondays. The Sunday Nation established that on paying the fee, a patient is vetted by several church officials “to ascertain their level of faith and to ensure that only serious ones get to see the prophetess.”
After vetting, a patient is required to “plant a seed,” according to “what they expect to reap.” The amount depends on the kind of prayers or one’s problem. An Aids patient is required to plant a seed of between Sh100,000 and Sh400,000 for a “cure.” The figure, the Sunday Nation learnt, is determined by one’s job or social status and how desperate one is.
Several HIV-positive church members told of how they had sold property and taken loans to get the treatment. But, they said, they were rebuked by the prophetess when they asked her to accept half of the Sh200,000 she was asking for from each.
Two of them had made several visits to the church seeking an explanation why they were still infected. “We were reprimanded by the prophetess, who said we were of little faith,” one recalled. “She was angry that we had gone for tests in other clinics.”
They said that at one point, they confronted the prophetess, but she bribed them with Sh20,000 to start a business. Prophetess Nduta told the Sunday Nation that she could also pray for the so-called miracle babies. She claimed to have done so for a woman who had been childless for 18 years of marriage, and she had twins.
She said she moved her ministry from Loitokitok to Nairobi to “serve more people.”
As for the special prayers, she said patients gave her money of their own volition “from their understanding of the obligation they have to the person of God.”
She added: “I receive money from so many people all over the world. Seed planting is a normal church activity and is not limited to this church.”
And for patients whose HIV status does not change despite prayers, she had a word of counsel – patience. “Some have been healed instantly, while others may take a day or two – some may even take two years to get healed,” she explained.
At the same time, Medical Services Director James Nyikal urged the public to be wary of people claiming to have an Aids cure – spiritual or medical – and said there was none.
The disease, he said, is managed with drugs, and urged patients to continue taking theirs.
“It would be a tragedy for people who are on treatment to stop taking their medicine to go for prayers. They must take their medication,” he emphasised.
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