This story was first published in our May 2016 issue of The Connecter. It is a timely reminder that persevering intercession builds faith and boldness that can turn the tide.

View Comments (9)

Kenya’s history has been marked by governmental corruption. Starting in the late 1970s, the nation was governed by one party with their second president, President Moi, coming to office in 1978 and ruling for the next 24 years. Under Moi’s leadership, the country was ruled by dictatorship not by democracy. Anyone who spoke out against the government was silenced.

It was in those early years that Ibrahim and Diane Omondi, a young couple recently out of college and living in Nairobi, started a magazine for Christian leaders called Beyond Magazine. Their mission was to call the leaders of Kenya to integrity and transparency within national politics. But, due to their boldness in speaking out against the oppressive regime, within three years one of their editors was thrown into jail, and they were forced to shut down the magazine in 1988.

Everyone knew about “Reverend Omondi” and his willingness to stand against corruption. Over the next decade, he called leaders to prayer. Continued corruption and dishonesty plagued the nation, and politicians were stirring tribal animosities resulting in violence and bloodshed. By 1996, Omondi was asked to be the General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of Kenya. In the next few years, he led prayer initiatives at various “high places” within the nation where blood sacrifices and occult ceremonies took place in order to overturn the spiritual darkness rooted in the nation.

But, even as intercessors were praying, Christian leaders were divided. Many bishops were being courted by the government and would not confront the corruption for fear of losing their favored positions. Omondi was often followed, and his life was threatened because of his call for righteous rule. Finally, in 2002, breakthrough came. The national election was coming up, and it was well-known that the president was not planning to step down. This decision would result in more bloodshed across the land. By special invitation, a meeting was to take place with the president and some key pastors. After much prayer and fasting, Omondi knew the Lord had given him a mandate to ask for the president’s resignation. Realizing that it could mean a death sentence, he rallied the Church to pray.

On the day of the meeting, the pastors were taken to a waiting room. There, Omondi found a restroom and, after having written down on a piece of paper the various curses and sins of the nation, he prophetically flushed them down the toilet, asking God for mercy upon his nation. They were then led to a second waiting room where he did the same thing, asking God for boldness to address the president.

The pastors were invited to pray for the president and Omondi was the last one to pray. While the president’s head was bowed and his eyes closed, Omondi looked straight at him and spoke the word of the Lord saying it was time to step down peacefully and allow for a democratic election. The other pastors were shocked and tried to pull him away, but Omondi finished his prayer. There was no visible response from the president and Omondi thought that he hadn’t been heard. However, within a short time, not only did the president step down, but gave a public apology to the people. After 24 years of dictatorship, Kenya was now free to elect their next president, one whom God used for the next five years to bring correction and order.

Through persevering prayer of united intercessors and one man’s bold faith, a nation was delivered from oppressive rule. Omondi encourages intercessors to work in unity and integrity and distance themselves from corruption in order to have a proper perspective. This is what can position them to both hear and speak the heart of God for a nation in a time of need.

• Wanda Alger, IFA Field Correspondent