Fredrick Nzwili

Fredrick Nzwili is a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. For more than 15 years, he has written about religion, politics, peace and conflict, development, security, environment and wildlife. His articles have appeared in international media organizations among others; The Tablet, The Christian Science Monitor, The National Geographic and Kenyan local newspapers; The Standard and the People Daily.

All Stories by Fredrick Nzwili

Nine years after Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, Muslims launch a counterpart

By Fredrick Nzwili — March 5, 2024
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The document was drafted by scholars and members of leading Islamic organizations assembled by the United Nations Environmental Program’s Faith for Earth Coalition.

After Tanzania bus accident kills 11 of its missionaries, group reaches out for support

By Fredrick Nzwili — February 28, 2024
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Leaders of Youth With a Mission are rallying for help to aid logistical arrangements, including medical evacuations, repatriations and funeral arrangements.

After a boom in west Africa, LDS church finds increasing acceptance in the east

By Fredrick Nzwili — February 20, 2024
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Once shunned as cultic and anti-Christian, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has converted not only thousands of Africans, but has come to collaborate with Africa’s historic denominations, and even with Muslims.

Kenyan court rules pastor accused of starving his congregation is mentally fit for trial

By Fredrick Nzwili — February 6, 2024
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The taxi driver-turned-charismatic preacher faces multiple charges, including murder and terrorism, after being accused of convincing members of his church — some say ‘cult’ — to pray and fast until death, with the goal of meeting Jesus.

Africa’s six Anglican women bishops meet and issue call to combat Africa’s ‘triple threat’

By Fredrick Nzwili — January 19, 2024
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The weeklong gathering outside Kenya's capital was the first time the six had met as bishops. 'We have never had time to meet just to pray, to know each other and fellowship,' said one of the prelates.

Leading African ecumenical group elects first female president

By Fredrick Nzwili — November 30, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The Rev. Lydia Chituku Neshangwe, a Presbyterian minister, became the first woman to lead the ecumenical All Africa Conference of Churches.

In Kenya, married ex-priests follow Vatican synod’s discussion of clerical celibacy

By Fredrick Nzwili — October 25, 2023
(RNS) — Former Catholic priests are hoping the prelates gathered for the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican will do away with the ban on marriage for clergy, allowing them to reunite with the church.

African churches urge US Congress to reauthorize PEPFAR

By Fredrick Nzwili — September 18, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The leaders are writing in response to a letter sent to Congress in June by religious groups and legislators asserting that the funds for the program were financing family planning and reproductive health programs, including abortion. 

At African climate summit, faith leaders join demands for climate justice

By Fredrick Nzwili — September 6, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — ‘Matters of climate change cannot be politicized, reduced to economies,’ said a Lutheran priest, but instead should be ‘treated as a matter of life and death.’

Kenya closes churches over ‘starvation massacre’ that has killed 427

By Fredrick Nzwili — August 21, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — While deploring the mass starvation of members of Good News International Ministries in Malindi, officials of established churches are resisting calls for more regulation of religious groups.

After troubled decade, Kenya Methodists elect new presiding bishop

By Fredrick Nzwili — July 21, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Methodists in Kenya hope the new leader can breathe new life into the church following the bitter wrangles under former Presiding Bishop Joseph Ntombura's leadership.

Catholic bishops in South Sudan call for reexamination of ‘flawed’ peace pact

By Fredrick Nzwili — July 5, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The bishops claim the pact that ended the country’s 2013-2018 civil war has allowed political leaders to extend their power at the expense of ordinary people.

Agnes Abuom, global ecumenist, peacemaker and African church leader, dies at 73

By Fredrick Nzwili — June 2, 2023
(RNS) — A longtime official with the World Council of Churches, Abuom played a significant role in the search for peace in Sudan and South Sudan after the latter gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

Sudan’s increased fighting empties Christian clerics from the capital Khartoum

By Fredrick Nzwili — May 15, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The brewing civil war in the country has convinced Christians and their leaders to leave the capital en masse, with many fleeing across the border to South Sudan.

As death toll mounts in Kenya church, local clergy wonder at scale of indoctrination

By Fredrick Nzwili — April 25, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Most of the exhumed bodies have been children’s, but the extreme indoctrination of their parents has shocked clerics and religious analysts.
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