Contemporary Research Analysis Journal

This article examines the religious beliefs and eschatological thought of the Lost Israelites Religious Movement (LIRM), an African new religious movement founded by Jehovah Wanyonyi in Western Kenya and now centred in Chemororoch Village, Uasin Gishu County. Although the movement has drawn periodic press attention, often in a tone of ridicule, its belief system has not been documented from the perspective of its adherents. The study adopted a qualitative ethnographic design within a single-case framework. Fieldwork conducted between July and September 2024 generated data from 45 participants through 16 key informant interviews, seven semi-structured interviews and four focus group discussions, supported by participant observation and document review. Data were analysed thematically under the guidance of James Cox’s interpretive phenomenological approach and Max Weber’s sociology of theodicy. Four interlocking beliefs emerged. First, Wanyonyi is understood as a sovereign and ever-present divine being whose power evokes both fear and protection. Second, adherents hold an exclusive Israelite identity that is enacted bodily through dress, posture and separation from “people of the world.” Third, death is reconceived as angelic transformation, expressed in the prohibition of mourning and the use of sitting coffins, while illness is addressed through sacrifice rather than biomedical care. Fourth, the promise of life “on top of the waters” offers a concrete afterlife free from disease, poverty and death. The article argues that these beliefs work together as a theodicy that turns marginalisation, illness and mortality into signs of imminent deliverance, which helps to explain the movement’s persistence after the loss of its founder. The findings also carry implications for public health engagement with the community.

Lost Israelites, new religious movements, eschatology, theodicy; African Israelite identity, interpretive phenomenology, Kenya

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