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A section of the Ikutha AIC church | PHOTO-Courtesy
By Eastern Newspaper Correspondent
Ikutha AIC church along the Kibwezi Kitui highway is rich in the history of missionary activities not only in Kitui County but also in the East Africa region.
The center preserves rich information on how explorers and missionaries settled in the area and started the works of evangelization amidst numerous challenges.
According to the available historical information, the Ikutha AIC church was started by a missionary from the Leipzig area of East Germany Johannes Hofmann. The explorer cum missionary settled at Ikutha in 1895 and built the first church in the region.
To succeed in his project Hoffman had to involve the local community, especially the young people who were physically carrying construction material from the Kibwezi area approximately 10 kilometers from Ikutha to help Hofmann put up a Church.
Earlier, British explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf had explored the area and sent a good message to the mother church Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Europe, a situation that led to the Church Mission Services to send Hoffman to the place later to establish a family church and start evangelization.
According to one of the current church pastors Mr. Joel Muema, when Hoffman arrived at Ikutha, he met a hospitable community that accommodated him with love and passion.
They were excited to see a white man working on various activities in the region. Hoffman had traveled from Rabai in the coast region in an effort to penetrate the interior parts of the country and spread the word of God.
Mr. Hoffman later brought his family from Europe to Ikutha where they stayed for three years without converting a single person but later when he opened a school to teach the locals how to read and write, many people were converted and they became members of the Church.
‘The local Kamba people were excited to see people of different skin color, Most of them did not believe in the teachings of Hoffman but when some of them learnt how to read and write they understood the gospel and converted to Christianity’ Pastor Muema added.
The process of selling the Good News of Christianity was faced with numerous challenges that included strongly anchored traditional and cultural beliefs among the Kamba community at the time.
Further information reveals that the Ikutha center land was donated by an individual who liked Hoffman and allowed him to build a family church at the center.
The Ikutha AIC compound comprises the original church, a school, and a family cemetery that reminds visitors and tourists of the history of the AIC church in Kenya particularly in Kitui and the entire Ukambani region.
Later the mission moved to the Kanziku area before settling at the current Mulango area where the CMS team built a bigger church, a theological college, and a school to uplift the lives of the local community mainly the people who settled near Kitui town.
Hoffman was later arrested and deported as a political prisoner leaving his family behind who later died after being attacked by malaria in the area.
They were all buried at the center and their graves are intact to date. The graveyard comprises tombstones engraved with the names of members of the Hoffman family including; Johannes Willis, Johannes Eduard Hoffman, Hanna Emillie Hoffman, and Sauberlicre Hoffman. One unmarked grave is believed to belong to one of the Hoffman’s servants.
The AIC church constructed a library at Mulango in memory of Johannes Hoffman.
According to information recently released by the Department of Tourism in Kitui County, the government is making efforts to preserve and promote the site to attract more tourists and build on history and tourism activities in the region.
The Kitui government is looking for people who can help in getting more information and writing a rich history about Ikutha. They are also trying to trace Hoffman’s family in Germany.
The county of Kitui recently revealed a robust program of promoting various tourist attraction sites within the county as a move to create revenue and promote culture and the heritage of the Kamba community.
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