African Kanisa Israel Faith Healing and the Management of COVID-19 in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

Abstract

The study investigated the African Kanisa Israel faith healing and the management of COVID-19 in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya. It traced the history of A. K. Israel, assessed the concept of faith healing in A. K. Israel, and examined the role of A. K. Israel’s faith healing in the management of COVID-19. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research designs and settings. This entailed purposive sampling, stratified sampling, and simple random sampling to obtain data from the African Kanisa Israel faithful with regard to the usage of faith healing in the management of COVID-19. Respondents included 1 A. K. Israel Bishop, 40 A. K. Israel faith healers, 384 A. K. Israel faith healing users, and 5 area Chiefs. The study indicated that A. K. Israel mainly preaches faith healing to address health concerns. The teachings of the A. K. Israel on faith healing are recognized by the faithful as a safety net for disease; therefore, adherence to their indigenous practices and the prophecy about COVID-19 helped a great deal in maintaining optimal health status amidst the pandemic. The study recommends revisiting the indigenous practices and taking that which is useful and blending it with science to arrive at sustainable solutions to not only coronavirus disease but also future calamities. Following this, the study advocates for measures to be put in place to enable the tapping of indigenous knowledge systems as a basis for the understanding and management of diseases hand in hand with science. That entails moving from a people’s knowledgeable base to the unknown