Ministry

Soloman Kimuyu, a Baptist minister, visited the George and Arna Farmer family Monday in Faribault. He is a Kenya native who is working to create the “Solomon Home for Children” to take care of 3,000 orphans. (Pauline Schreiber/Daily News)

 

pschreiber@faribault.com

 

FARIBAULT — A Kenya native, gathering financial support for his dream of building a home for neglected and abused children in his home country, made a stop in Faribault on Monday.

 

Solomon Kimuyu, a Baptist minister who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years, returned to his native country two years ago to begin a campaign to run for parliament. Elections were in December. He lost his bid and was in Kenya during the violence that surrounded the general election.

 

“I was traumatized, distressed and in shock by the events that were happening around me,” Kimuyu said.

 

More than 1,000 people died in the violence and 350,000 people have been displaced.

 

“There is no federal aid like there is here, so it is very difficult for those who have been displaced,” he said.

 

Kimuyu is set on trying again for a seat in Kenya’s parliament in 2012.

 

“Changing laws, to make just laws, can only be done by being part of the Kenya political process,” he said Monday while visiting George and Arna Farmer of Faribault.

 

Lila Farmer, George’s sister, is working to help Kimuyu’s efforts to find donations for his “Solomon Home for Children.” Since they were near Faribault on their travels, they stopped to visit George and Arna.

 

The children’s home Kimuyu is building is being built in rural Kenya, near the area in which President Theodore Roosevelt went on safari in 1909 and later wrote the book, “African Game Trails.”

 

“Part of my efforts also is a leadership school to help people of my country become leaders so that positive changes occur in Kenya,” Kimuyu said.

 

Kenya’s government statistics indicate that during the past five years the poverty level in the country fell from 56 percent to 46 percent. Yet his native country is still very poverty stricken. In comparison, the United States 2006 poverty rate was 12.3 percent.

 

And, he said, many Kenyans lack clean drinking water or basic food and shelter and have

little access to health care.

Kimuyu has pledged to support 3,000 Kenyan orphans at his children’s home. He believes everyone needs to be involved in the political process of the country they live in. Too many Americans, he said, do not pay attention to politics.

 

“It’s important Americans vote and important they know who they are voting for and what politicians stand for,” Kimuyu said. “The wrong leadership in this country can effect American’s foreign policy and world peace.”

 

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Expatriate Baptist minister nominated for position in Kenyan Parliament

 

By Ken Camp

 

Published: October 9, 2007

 

DALLAS (ABP) -- A Kenyan Baptist minister appears likely to be elected to parliament in his homeland.

 

Solomon Kimuyu has been nominated by the Kenya African National Union to represent Machakos township, about 35 miles east of Nairobi , in Kenya ’s parliament and serve as leader of the Akamba tribe.

 

Kimuyu, who has lived in Texas more than 25 years, represents the Akamba people in Kenya .  Polls show him receiving 80 percent of the expected votes, and his nomination almost guarantees his election when voters go to the polls in December, he said.

 

When the 260 national union delegates selected Kimuyu, he became the first Kenyan in the United States -- living in what his countrymen call “the Diaspora” -- to be nominated by a major political party.

 

Kimuyu moved to the United States in the early 1980s. A member of First Baptist Church in Garland , Texas , Kimuyu has permanent resident status in the United States , but he has remained a citizen of Kenya throughout his quarter-century abroad. If elected, he and his wife, Protasia, will move to Kenya His grown children were born in the United States and live in the Dallas area.

 

“I have a lot of friends” in Texas , he said. But public service in Kenya is a second calling, he added: “I came to this country to receive education for the purpose of returning my talent to my people. That time has come. I want to go help my people.”

 

Kimuyu said he plans to demonstrate honesty and integrity within Kenya ’s government. If elected, he said, he wants to build farm-to-market roads and an educational center, and expand rural access to electricity, clean water and health care.

 

But after more than two decades building homes for children with faith-based organizations in Texas , he said he especially looks forward to returning to his first calling: the pastorate.

 

Kimuyu was pastor of Athi River First Baptist Church in Kenya , and he served as general secretary of the Baptist Convention of Kenya and vice president for the All-Africa Baptist Union.

 

After moving to the United States , he attended Hardin-Simmons University and graduated from Howard Payne University . Later, he earned a master’s degree from Dallas Baptist University and a doctorate from the University of North Texas .

 

In recent years, Kenya ’s Baptist convention has experienced division -- a problem Kimuyu attributed to the controversy that gripped the Southern Baptist Convention for more than two decades and the imposition of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message as a test of fellowship.

 

Kimuyu said his goal is to be a unifying force not only in secular politics but also in the Baptist convention in Kenya .

 

“I want to go back like Nehemiah and rebuild.”