A Kenyan ‘preacher’, David Kimweli, was reportedly responsible for one of the biggest diplomatic blunders in Kenya's history.
A Washington Post article dated November 18, 1987, gave a thrilling account of how the conniving preacher drove a wedge between Kenya and America.
He successfully fueled president Moi’s paranoia by convincing him that the Americans were planning to overthrow him by using Ku Klux Klan spies disguised as missionaries.
The con pastor drafted a fake memo which detailed an elaborate plan by a white supremacist group to aid the South African apartheid govt by overthrowing four Sub-Saharan African governments, with Kenya topping the list.
“To Klu Klux Klan Members, we need to raise $80 Million and $1,000,000 for bribery. The basic plan is, to begin with, Kenya because this is where our interests are mostly at stake. Our folks there need money,” revealed an excerpt of the fake memo.
It went on to name 7 missionaries as the alleged spies with all the major publications at the time running the ‘fake’ news.
This prompted President Moi to action, resulting in the deportation of all the named missionaries who were believed to be white supremacist spies.
“There are non-Kenyans among us who have come to our country for carefully disguised purposes," declared Moi in a speech.
However, when the alleged author of the memo - Kenneth Caswell, was contacted, he categorically disowned the letter and explained that his church did not even have any missionary operations.
Mr Caswell was adamant that the memo was a total fabrication which is what led investigators to Mr Kimweli.
As it turned out, the Kenyan preacher had been crusading around America claiming to run two ministries - the Kenya Christian Evangelistic Outreach Mission and Reach and Touch Global Ministries.
He was reportedly very convincing and managed to raise a lot of money for ‘Gods cause’, however, his act was so good that Mr Caswell decided to send seven missionaries with him back to Kenya to aid in the outreach efforts.
It was the seven who were named in the fake memo and duly deported and branded as white supremacist spies.
"All the people mentioned in the Ku Klux Klan letter were attracted by Kimweli to work in Kenya," an American Mennonite missionary Jerry Sauder stated.
According to Mr. Sauder, who worked closely with one of the expelled missionary families, the seven missionaries all came to Kenya expecting to work for Kimweli's churches only to find that the churches did not exist.
