In the small village of Lukhokhwe, Tongaren, Bungoma County, resides a man who claims to be the second coming of Jesus. His name is Eliud Wekesa, but he goes by Yesu wa Tongaren.
Dressed in full dull-green robes and sporting a long grey beard, Yesu wa Tongaren cuts an imposing figure.
Although he was born in 1981, he claims to have started having visions of who he was at nine. “One morning, I was outside my parents’ house when a sound drew my attention skywards. There I saw hundreds of angels come down to greet me. I was not alarmed, and thereafter I told my parents about it,” he says.
Since then, Yesu wa Tongaren claims to have had the same vision twice a week between 0900hrs and 1200hrs. He would see hundreds of angels come down to greet him in glowing robes. His parents were not surprised by his claims and called him “Mungoi” (prophet) and “Omusalisi” (preacher).
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Yesu wa Tongaren built his church, the Jerusalem Mpya Kanisa la Yesu Church, in 2015, and to date, it has more than two hundred ordained angels and prophets. Like Jesus Christ, he has twelve disciples representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Ordaining of the prophets comes after the said individual gets a revelation from God. Ordained church members put on different robes.
Yesu wa Tongaren’s wife is among the prophets and goes by Nabii Benjamin, although she was born Susan Bulimo. Equally, his fifth-born son, nine years old, is a prophet and is known as Nabii Yusufu. Yesu wa Tongaren got married at 20 years. His difficult childhood forced him to drop out after his first term in Form One at Lukhokhwe Secondary School.
In an interview, Yesu wa Tongaren stated, “I am the son of God, and I came back to complete the work that I started more than 2000 years ago when I left earth.” He even quotes Isaiah 53:1-10 and Revelation 21:9 to explain his marriage, which says, “Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the last seven plagues and spoke to me saying, ‘come I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb.” He adds that he did not marry the first time he was on earth, but the Bible clearly says that he shall have offspring when he returns.
Despite social media threats to crucify him over Easter, Yesu wa Tongaren remains unfazed. He states, “Those are the dark hearts from Babylon. God, my father, is letting them come together to attack me because he wants to destroy them. Jesus was crucified only once, and since I have come for the second time, it is written in the Bible that I come to save those who await me, not to die for their sins a second time.”
Whether Yesu wa Tongaren is the second coming of Jesus or not, only time will tell. For now, his followers and the curious will continue to flock to his church to hear his teachings and witness the miracles he claims to perform
