The Impact of Christianity by Friend’s Missionaries among the Tiriki People

Abstract

This article aimed to describe the impact of Christianity on the culture and traditions of the Tiriki people in Hamisi Constituency, Vihiga County. Tiriki community refers to the Bantu people who came to the western part of Kenya and intermarried with the Kalenjin community staying there by then. The investigating will be based on the keywords in the title of this article and shortly discussing the important the growth of Christianity in Hamisi Constituency, Vihiga County. The article further looks into the growth of the church and describes the impact of Christianity on Tiriki people in terms of Christianity, education, socio-politics, and health. Here I shall consider my discussions on the history of Friends Missions in the area since the earlier nineteenth century. As far as Friends missionaries are concerned, it recognizes the activities done by the Friends Missionaries in terms of positive and negative development force introduced by Christianity while noting several things that improved the lives of the people, such as health facilities and education. On the other hand, Christianity led to the downgrade of the African customs and culture, which it saw as pagan and evil; the religion also led to social problems. Some of the social problems caused by Christianity was a complete change to the lifestyles and introduction of new ways of living that caused cultural clash among the community. The missionary work was to evangelize and spread the gospel of God among the Tiriki people in the western part of Kenya. Keywords: Friends Mission Church, Tiriki, Western Kenya, Impact