Neo - Pentecostal Churches Advocacy and Alleviation of Domestic Water Scarcity in Tigania West Constituency, Meru County, Kenya
Abstract
Most neo-Pentecostal churches contravene Luke 4:16-19, Psalms 41 and Exodus 18: 21 by failing to advocate for peoples’ water rights. This stance has of late interested many scholars to do studies on churches and advocacy for water rights. In line with this, this study analyzed such advocacy by neo - Pentecostal churches in alleviating domestic water scarcity in Tigania West Constituency, Meru County, Kenya. The objectives were to: investigate how neo- Pentecostal churches advocated for water rights on their own, assess how Neo-Pentecostal churches partnered with other water advocacy groups, and, investigate how neo-Pentecostal churches supported politicians for the alleviation of this menace. Theological reflection theory, interpretivist philosophy, qualitative approach and phenomenological design guided this study. The sample entailed 22 pastors taken through census, and 59 out of 594 members belonging to these pastors’ 22 churches, taken through 10% in the 10-30 % formula. This was followed by cluster and simple random samplings. Tools used on them were interview schedule for the 22 pastors, documentary analysis for their churches, and focus group discussions for the 59 members held in 4 groups of 12 members each and 1 group of 11 members. Data collected was purely qualitative and was analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. The findings indicated that these churches did not engage in advocacy for water rights. But, they agreed that they supported ‘good’ political leaders to win elections so as to help in alleviating domestic water scarcity. The study recommended that training actors should organize premises to train neo–Pentecostal Churches on advocacy for water rights. This would orient the latter to social gospel and thus push for advocacy for water rights and the best practices in electing political leaders to alleviate water scarcity in the constituency.
Key terms: Neo-Pentecostals churches, advocacy or water rights, domestic water scarcity, ecclesiastical praxis
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