A new study has unveiled the lid on religious persecutions and hostility facing Christians in Kenya despite majority of citizens practising and professing the Christian faith.
The Open doors World Watch List 2026 has ranked Kenya 54th in the list of nations where believers face the greatest obstacle to fully enjoy their freedom of worship.
The static was revealed during a breakfast meeting by ServAfrica, an organization that is raising awareness on the shrinking religious space in Africa.
“Christians continue to face persecution, violence, displacement, and restrictions because of the faith.” ServAfrica said.
ServAfrica says the report is an SOS call to believers that unlike before when hostility was confined to nations of Christian minority, threats to the faith is gaining ground in Christian backyards.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statics show that over 40.4 million Kenyans, which is 85.5% of the Kenyan population practice Christianity. Protestantism has a 33. 4% following followed by Roman Catholicism(20.6%), Evangelicalism (20.4%), African- Initiated Churches (7%), while other Christian denominations account for 4.1% of believers.
Pastor James Okumu, who has been a Christian broadcaster says that persecution is a fulfilment of biblical prophecies about the last days.
He, however, says that it is not all doom and gloom for believers in Kenya pointing that hostility to the faith is an opportunity to spread the gospel even further.
“One thing I thank God for is that all things work for the good, God will use the very things that the enemy has brought to discourage His people to actually propergate his message to places we never thought this message will permeate to.” He noted.
Okumu, who has been broadcasting on Kenyan radios and televisions for over 27 years, says challenges believers in Kenya not to sit pretty but stand with persons undergoing religious persecution.
“We are one body and when part of the body is suffering then the whole body is suffering and the whole body needs to unite and standard with one another because we have one misiion- to go into the world and make dispels, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Aon and the Holy Spirit and teaching them what Jesus has commanded.” Okumu said, referencing to the Great Commission of Mathew 28.
Open doors World Watch List 2026 noted that Sub Saharan Africa is a leading hub for persecution with 12 countries in the region featuring the top 20 most dangerous countries for Christians.
