The Kanyari nyama choma altar roast has ignited a firestorm of debate in Kenya’s evangelical circles, with controversial televangelist Pastor Victor Kanyari turning his Salvation Healing Ministry’s sacred platform into an impromptu grill on October 12, serving up sizzling portions of the nation’s beloved barbecued goat to a rapt congregation during Sunday worship.
Videos of the spectacle, showing flames licking the altar as Kanyari flipped skewers with tongs and anointed the meat in olive oil prayers, exploded across TikTok and WhatsApp groups, drawing cheers from attendees but gasps from outsiders questioning the blend of faith and feast.
Kanyari, 41, whose flamboyant sermons have long blurred the lines between spiritual revival and spectacle, framed the act as divine provision amid economic hardships.
“God doesn’t just promise bread from heaven. He serves nyama choma for the weary soul!” he boomed, his voice booming over crackling embers, before slicing and distributing the smoky bounty to hundreds packed into the modest Kayole church.
Parishioners, many from Nairobi’s sprawling informal settlements, lined up with plastic plates, some tearfully testifying to “miracle meat” that would feed their families for days.
It’s a stunt echoing last month’s chicken-roasting fiasco at the same venue, where Kanyari deep-fried poultry on a portable stove mid-praise session, dubbing it “fowl deliverance” to symbolise breaking poverty’s chains.
This isn’t Kanyari’s first brush with unorthodox theatrics. The prosperity gospel preacher, once infamous for a 2015 BBC exposé on fake miracles and seed-faith scams that nearly shuttered his ministry, has rebuilt his flock through viral giveaways and unfiltered lives.
Supporters see the Kanyari nyama choma altar roast as empowerment gold, tangible blessings in a country where 36% grapple with food insecurity, per KNBS data. “In the Bible, Jesus fed multitudes with fish and loaves; Victor’s just updating the menu for us hustlers,” quipped congregant Mary Wanjiku, 35, a single vendor from Dandora, as she savoured a rib, grease glistening under fluorescent lights.
“Turning God’s house into a nyama choma joint? It’s not fellowship, it’s farce,” Njoya told reporters, linking it to broader excesses in Kenya’s megachurch boom, where tithes fund jets but not always the poor.
Feminist voices like activist Boniface Mwangi amplified concerns, arguing it preys on desperate women in the pews, echoing Kanyari’s past “salvation for sale” scandals. The uproar has thrust the spotlight back on regulatory gaps, reigniting calls for the Religious Organisations Bill, 2024, stalled in Parliament since its tabling by Kitui Senator Enock Wambua.
The proposed law mandates registration and financial audits and bans exploitative practices like mandatory “seed offerings”, aiming to curb fraud in a sector overseeing 80% of Kenyans’ spiritual lives.
“If pastors grill on altars without oversight, what’s next, cocktail hours during communion?” Wambua thundered in a Senate session Monday, vowing to fast-track the bill amid public clamour.
