Origins of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa

Modern missionary expeditions in Kenya began in 1844 when the Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf to Mombasa to evangelise the coastal people.

He was joined by Johannes Rebmann in 1846 and Jakob Erhardt in 1849. These three pioneer missionaries were German Lutherans and their first mission station on the mainland was at Rabai among the Mijikenda people.

Missionary enterprises among the Kikuyu began in 1896 when the Gospel Missionary Society (GMS) established themselves at Marambu near Ruiru, Church of Scotland Mission (CSM) in 1898 at Kikuyu, Holy Ghost Fathers in 1899 at Nairobi, Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1900 at Kabete and the African Inland Mission (AIM) in 1903 at Kijabe.

While the origins and missionary work of the other parties is well documented, that of the GMS is rather scanty and obscured. It is also the only mission in Kenya that failed to leave behind its own self-supporting and self-governing church with links to its mother church.

I have recently had the opportunity to read Professor Evanson Wamagatta’s book The Presbyterian Church of East Africa, which gives a detailed account of the GMS origins of the PCEA.

GMS has its roots in the Dwight Lyman Moody revival movement in America in the late nineteenth century. Popularly known as D.L. Moody, he was an energetic, innovative and unconventional evangelist.

His ecumenical spirit and nondenominational preference permitted him great latitude in enlisting pupils and teachers.

He travelled abroad and held many meetings attracting record crowds of between 12,000 and 20,000. It is claimed in some quarters that he was the greatest evangelist of the nineteenth century.

The spiritual awakening was accompanied by an irresistible urge to convert the unconverted, not only in America, but also in the uttermost unevangelised regions of the earth in preparation for the second coming of Christ.

One of the churches which was formed to meet this need was the People’s Church of Christ of New Britain, Connecticut which, in turn, formed GMS as its missionary arm.

It espoused a conservative, fundamentalist and strongly evangelistic brand of Christianity that was strictly Bible-centred.

The church was founded in 1888 by Pastor Hezekiah Davis, a charismatic veteran of the Civil War. The GMS was a faith mission which depended on God to provide for all its needs through prayer and its supporters free-will offerings.

In 1895, the People’s Church of Christ commissioned Frederick W. Krieger as its first missionary and dispatched him to Kenya under the auspices of AIM who also planned to establish a mission there.

Krieger and Peter Cameron Scott of AIM led a party of eight missionaries to Kenya in October 1895. After spending 17 days in Mombasa, the party travelled inland by caravan to Nzawi in Ukambani where they set up a mission station.

Three other mission stations were opened in quick succession at Sakai, Kilungu and Kangundo.

Unfortunately tragedy struck when Scott fell ill and died in December 1896 of malaria complicated by blackwater fever. Kriegler took charge of the mission in an acting capacity and opened a camp at Marambu near Ruiru.

He was unable to hold the mission together and it almost ground to a halt, tottering under heavy debt to suppliers.

The Knapps

Kriegler resigned from AIM and in 1898 bought a piece of land at Thembigwa, along the Riara River, where he established the first mission station of GMS.

Kriegler became known as “Kirika” by the Kikuyu. He was joined by three other missionaries from GMS, William Porter Knapp, his wife Myrtle Isabelle Knapp and Gertrude Wheeler in May 1899. By this time, Kriegler was the only remaining one from the original party, some having resigned and joined the government or gone into business while others had gone back to America due to illness and two had died.

The Knapps, who became the mainstay of GMS work in Kenya, lived at Thembigwa for three years. Following the death of Pastor Davis in January 1900, it became doubtful whether GMS and its missionaries would survive.

Rather than close down, GMS became affiliated to AIM and was thus able to survive, although still on shaky financial resources.

In 1902, the Knapps established a permanent mission headquarters at Kambui some eight miles west of Thembigwa. The AIM allotted to the GMS an area which covered northern Kiambu to the southern tip of Murang’a district in 1903.

The area stretched from Riara River in the south to Thika River in the north and included modern day Githunguri, Gatundu, Kiambaa, Lari and Kandara divisions.

Despite perennial financial challenges, the Knapps went on to establish many churches and schools in the area allotted to them.

However, their schools only provided lower primary level education and the GMS only ordained two African pastors, Wanyoike wa Kamawe and Mutaru wa Njoga during its existence.

This was a dismal performance compared to other missions. It appears the American missionaries were reluctant to hand over responsibilty to their followers.

Doubtless, the severe shortage of staff due to lack of financial resources and the reluctance to promote African leadership in the mission placed the Knapps under immense pressure and their health began to deteriorate in the mid 1930s. It had always been their wish to “leave a simple plain church, large enough for the congregations”.

William Knapp died on February 14, 1940 and his wife Myrtle died in August 1941. The death of the Knapps created a critical staffing and financial situation and eventually after much protracted negotiations with both AIM and CSM, the work of GSM was taken over by CSM in a merger signed in 1946. By then GSM did not have a single missionary in Kenya as they had all left.

In 1951, the foundation stone for the Knapp Memorial Church, Kambui was laid by Rt. Rev. Hugh Watt, moderator of the Church of Scotland.

The building is a poor man’s version of a neo classical design built in chisel dressed stone walls under an iron sheets roof supported by timber trusses resting on octagonal section columns.

Doors are made of timber boards while the floor is finished in oxide red cement screed. There are no windows, lighting and ventilation being provided by high level openings enclosed in wiremesh.

With a congregation that never exceeded 415 at its height, the Peoples Church of Christ had no hope of sustaining a mission abroad.