Wonders of Sergoit Hills

By William Kiptoo Today, I visited the home of the late Joseph Cheserem of Kapsengerut, whose story we recently featured as “The Grassroots Prophet Who Founded the Modern-Day Reformed Church of East Africa (RCEA).”   The home is strategically located along the busy Eldoret-Eldama Ravine Road, just past Naiberi and Straughburg, in Uasin Gishu County. It sits on a gentle rise known as Kapsengerut, literally, “the home of Sengerut.” The late Mzee Joseph Cheserem (Sengerut ) the humble farmworker whose faith and vision gave birth to RCEA WHO WAS SENGERUT?  In this quiet but spiritually rich homestead stands a church that Mzee Sengerut himself helped to establish in 1992. He donated the land for its construction, and next to it, a massive modern sanctuary is rising, a cathedral expected to hold close to 10,000 worshippers once complete. According to his family, this was Mzee’s vision: a house of worship that would draw people from near and far to praise God.  Just beside the...

By William Kiptoo Joseph Cheserem, popularly known as Sengerut , is regarded as the pioneer of the movement that led to the establishment of the Reformed Church of East Africa (RCEA) in Kenya. As a young boy, Cheserem worked on the farm of a former South African settler, Mr. A. J. Mouton, where he was first introduced to the gospel through his employer’s witness. A turning point came when he experienced a dramatic healing after a near-death illness, an event that deeply transformed his faith. Following this miracle, he gave his life to Christ and was baptized in 1953. After his conversion, Cheserem began evangelizing on local farms, passionately sharing the message of salvation. With the support of fellow believers, he persistently appealed to the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NG Kerk) to send a full-time missionary to serve in the area. His efforts bore fruit with the arrival of Eerwaarde Eybers, marking the beginning of what would eventually become the Reformed Church of East Afr...

From the history of the Reformed Church of East Africa In the early 1900s, some people from the Boer republics in South Africa moved to Eastern Africa after the Anglo-Boer War. They didn't want to live under British rule, so they settled in Kenya. These migrant farmers were part of the Reformed Churches in South Africa. They formed their own congregation called Vergenoeg in Eldoret, Kenya. The land there was fertile and perfect for farming. At that time, Kenya was still a German colony called German East Africa, but it would soon become a British colony after World War I.  Rev. M. P. Loubser became the first minister of the congregation. He, along with other farmers, established a ministry among the farmworkers. In 1944, the congregation decided to call its first full-time missionary. Rev. Loubser had left money in his will specifically for mission work, which made this possible. They bought a school building called Broederstroom, which is now known as Plateau, to be used as a miss...