A storm is brewing around Kenya’s most polarizing televangelist after a former insider accused self-styled Prophet David Edward Owuor of staging miracles, silencing critics through intimidation, and cultivating a cult-like following shielded by power and fear.
Nelson Amenya — the whistleblower internationally acclaimed for helping derail a controversial multibillion-shilling airport deal involving India’s Adani Group — has turned his spotlight on his former spiritual home: the Ministry of Repentance and Holiness.
In a series of explosive social media threads and interviews, Amenya alleges that many of Owuor’s globally broadcast “healing miracles” were choreographed spectacles, amplified through selective filming and post-production video editing. He further claims that dissenters were tracked, harassed and, in some cases, allegedly handed over to police, creating a climate of fear that kept critics silent.
“I Shot the Videos. I Edited the Miracles.”
Amenya, now based in France where he is completing an MBA, says he joined the ministry years ago and rose to a powerful position in its media team, handling video production for crusades and services watched by millions worldwide.
“I shot and edited the church service videos,” Amenya said during a 2025 appearance on the Iko Nini podcast, describing how early admiration curdled into alarm as he claims he witnessed deliberate deception.
At the centre of his accusations are the ministry’s hallmark healing services — dramatic moments where worshippers abandon crutches, rise from wheelchairs, or declare instant cures from blindness, paralysis, HIV/AIDS and other serious conditions.
According to Amenya, such moments often involved pre-selected participants and heavy post-production manipulation. He says footage was edited to exaggerate or even invent “instant miracles,” including sensational claims such as regrown spinal cords — assertions he argues lack credible, independent medical verification or long-term follow-up.
Amenya has also sought to dismantle stories that bolster Owuor’s near-mythical image among followers. One such claim involves a luxury jet allegedly gifted to Owuor by the Brazilian government during a 2013 crusade.
Amenya insists the aircraft was merely hired, and that stock images were initially circulated online to fabricate the impression of a state-level gift — a claim that has since gained traction among sceptics.
Owuor’s ministry is known for dramatic imagery: thick “clouds of glory” descending during crusades, a dove said to symbolise the Holy Spirit, and apocalyptic warnings delivered before massive open-air crowds. Critics argue these visuals, combined with tightly controlled messaging, are designed to overwhelm followers emotionally and spiritually.
Perhaps most disturbing are Amenya’s claims of institutional support used to crush dissent.
He recounts his role in 2017 in helping identify an anonymous online critic of the ministry — an action he now says led to police involvement, arrests, detentions in Eldoret and prolonged harassment. In a viral X (formerly Twitter) thread, Amenya wrote that police Land Rovers were deployed, expressing regret for what he says forced the critic into silence.
“These are things I now deeply regret,” he wrote, portraying a system where questioning the prophet carried real-world consequences.
Owuor, a former molecular biologist who emerged as a prophet in the early 2000s, commands vast influence through crusades that draw tens of thousands and sermons broadcast across continents.
Amenya and other critics point to leaked communications in which Owuor allegedly refers to himself — alongside an unnamed partner — as the “Two Mightiest Mightiest Prophets of Yahweh,” claiming direct daily instructions from God, responsibility for global events such as COVID-19, and unparalleled divine authority.
Detractors argue such language verges on blasphemy, elevating the prophet to near-divine status while fostering unquestioning loyalty among followers — including, allegedly, senior politicians and high-ranking officials who attend private audiences.
Amenya says he was expelled from the ministry in 2024, shortly after his Adani exposé, claiming church leaders began branding him an “enemy of the state” because of his activism and growing public profile.
The Ministry of Repentance and Holiness has not issued a formal response to Amenya’s latest allegations. Supporters have dismissed his claims as bitterness from a disgraced former member, insisting that Owuor’s miracles and prophecies are divinely validated.
Yet as Amenya’s revelations rack up hundreds of thousands of views online, they have reignited a national debate over accountability, transparency and power within Kenya’s booming charismatic movements.
With Owuor recently returning from medical treatment abroad and planning fresh crusades, the controversy appears far from over — and the questions now echo louder than ever: where does faith end, and manipulation begin?
