On Sunday night, November 15, Julian Kyula, a senior preacher at The Purpose Center Church in Nairobi, admitted to exposing his son to Covid-19.
Over the last 16 days, the tycoon has been recovering from the virus at a hospital in Nairobi.
"While at hospital my family had to be tested, and I was even more devastated that I had infected my son (who by God's grace was asymptomatic and has survived)," he revealed.
"I was distraught for having endangered my family... as a husband I felt as though I betrayed my darling wife, and yet I was the champion that always said we have to go work because how do we eat if we cant work?" he added.
The pastor went on to confess to being one of the most vocal leaders who had discredited the virus, having once said that Covid-19 was not African disease.
His near-death experience gave him a fresh perspective and he apologised for having misled his millions of followers
"I was busy telling them Corona isn't an African disease and.....and then it happened.. I got infected, I had to be picked by an ambulance taken into hospital as an emergency," he narrated.
While receiving emergency treatment at the hospital, he got a call from a friend who informed him that his dad had just died.
However, the pastor did not go on to detail whether or not the death was as a result of the virus.
He urged his colleagues from the church to exercise caution and avoid gatherings that could expose members to the virus, adding that his personal experience at the hospital should be used as a cautionary tale.
"As a father who infected his son I am awakened to how possible it is for this thing to clear out a family. As you go to work, please go where you really must go and do your best to work remotely if you can and for those that must be at work please exercise utmost caution for the sake of your destiny and those you love," he advised.
Pastor Kyula is the founder of Mobile Decisioning Company (MoDe), a fintech spanning over 26 countries including Indonesia, 14 African nations and several Middle Eastern states.
As of 2018, MoDe was reported to be advancing more than 6 million loans per day and lent an aggregate credit amount of over Ksh80 billion in 2017.
