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ZAKAYO YAWA!!!!!!!
_________________ Newton Karish (Karish Wa Gangara) is a musician famed for the song “Muthoni Kifagio”. An excellent orator, funnier that very many top Kenyan comics, Karish is capable of cracking up crowds even at funerals. Recently at a funeral, he warned that the names we accept and keep could easily send some of us straight to hell for things we do that do not match the name of person we 'namesake' in the Bible. Take for example someone called Mary (after the Mary the virgin mother of Jesus Christ) being found to be a practicing pr******te, or a John (after John the baptist in the Bible who baptized people with water) who in Karish's example is busy spending nights away 'baptizing' women that are not his wife as a philanderer or even one bearing the name Abigail who has a record of stealing spoon at functions. Wish you understood Kimbeere, I'll share the clip in the comments section. It is how he delivers though that leaves everyone in stitches. And then in his funny defense, he says Newton is only a scientist therefore not recorded in the Bible so he may be safe. 🤪. This uncle of mine 🤦🏾‍♂️! Oh just so you know he is married to my auntie, my dad's sister.

Anyway, so what’s in a name?

Zacchaeus, (ZAKAYO in Swahili if you like) is primarily known to have been a Tax collector and very unpopular to many. Ahem! Be sure to read till the end, if you are already thinking what I think you are thinking. As a Tax collector, he was seen as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers who would in the process grab people's stuff. Then he was wealthy. Not just rich, but wealthy.

Now, among his key descriptions which Minister Wambo Peris effectively highlighted during the sermon she very nicely delivered at Jubilee Covenant Center in Kent, Sunday March 10th 2024 was that Zakayo was short in stature. As we share a mental picture of a man as short as Zakayo visualize Minister Peris dramatically demonstrating how someone trying to locate Zakayo in a crowd would be struggling. But then something stood too tall about him, amid the intriguing comparisons that she drew. Zakayo was very smart. Ehe! I know you are with me here. So Zakayo so smart that knowing his height would compromise his ability to catch a glimpse of Jesus Christ as he headed to Jericho, his home town (also my city's home town that I partly grew up in, by the way), he strategically ran ahead of the crowd to find and climb a tree, taking a vantage spot where he knew Jesus Christ would certainly be passing so he could see him well. It worked with mathematical accuracy. Haha watu wa hesabu ni wachoraji.

Now INTERESTINGLY, the name Zacchaeus, yaani Zakayo means "Pure of the Lord” or “Innocent” 😳!!! Now where are you going? Stay here! I was shocked too!

So as the sermon went on, my mind kept shifting between the Zacchaeus in the Bible to current Kenya’s President William Samoei Ruto, who due to a raft of tax policies his Kenya Kwanza government introduced has earned an equally unpopular vote by the masses to the point of becaming branded "Zakayo", a name that even he, has publicly acknowledged saying that he doesn’t mind it if by it he can keep collecting more taxes from Kenyans so as to remove Kenya from debt distress.

It was at this unpopular spot that my thoughts that I strayed further into another rather unpopular decisions President Ruto, just made, appointing a rather unpopular Ezra Chiloba to replace the super popular Consul General Ambassador Thomas BigTed Kwaka (Big Ted). Big Ted is the revolutionary Consul General who is recognized as the most efficient diplomat Kenya has had since independence, having broken the walls of the consulate to allow open access to services by Kenyans living in the US West Coast. So revolutionary has he been that Kenyan Diaspora in other parts of the world have been demanding that their ambassadors and Heads of Missions benchmark with him. They've expressed shock and disapproval of this on the inter webs, and I agree with them all. But more importantly, this thought landed at the grace with Big Ted has taken all this. I had met him last week at the Consulate in Los Angeles and he received me so well, even treated me to an impromptu party as it turned out that the same day was my birthday, which he did’t know about prior. Just hang on, we are on course. Amid all the noise, and in my thoughts, something struck me.

When I called Big Ted, he was all so gracious about it. Perhaps too diplomatic. I'll choose spiritual. If you know him you know he has this strong side of him too. Big Ted knows as I do, about this thing only present in those who carry a spiritual view of things, when faced with unexplainable circumstances. When the news broke, my friend Steve Thuagi had called me to check with me about it. I had't called Big Ted at the time, but shared the same point of view I did with Pastor Steve Ndegwa, Faleri Muthoni and Junior (Both on my premier Vodcast) as we took our usual “after-the-service tea and mandazi”. You see, Big Ted rose up the entertainment ranks via a very unlikely path ascending to becoming President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Master Of Ceremonies, handling events at State House and elsewhere including the most sensitive and challenging one as he recounts, handling President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya. I will be sharing AN EXCLUSIVE VIDEO titled “WHO THE REAL BIG TED’S HEAD” a rare and first intimate expose I did in 2023. Be sure subscribe to and “The Tony Chirah Show” I'll share the links in the comments section below the post subscribe when done reading.

Anyway, back to from the sermon, in his career path, he had hit the ceiling in Kenya’s entertainment ranks and this is where the divine connection comes in. The only next thing for his progression would be what (in my spiritual discernment) God created for him, through his appointment to the position of Kenya’s Consul General in LA, the entertainment capital of the world, handpicking him from very many more deserving individuals present. Like David and the many underdogs recorded in the Bible that God chose, he was least qualified. Even without an academic degree, Big Ted was appointed and sent to LA, fully loaded with power tools (considering his official authority) to access whoever he would have needed while there. Divine right?

Yeah.

As word was preached, I saw me in him, in my lower primary school days, when barefooted I’d be in the bushes all day herding my dad’s cattle and goats, or taking my day out of school in the shamba chasing birds and squirrels to save our crops or those dark months I wrote about last week when the community had literally disowned me and I had become a high school drop out for a moment. But behold, these thoughts are being had from Kent, Washington in the USA. Who would have thought? Acheni tu Mungu aitwe Mungu!!!

As I got home from church, was this whole body engulfing experience of an intense worship and thanksgiving mood created by the words of deep worship as was led by Joy. I'm still immersed in reflection on the circumstances surrounding Zakayo's strange story with Jesus, the Kenyan one, this one of Big Ted, my own story and those of many who have such testimonies, so great that they now have a new platform on “THE BRIDGE VODCAST” launched on my YouTube through the “Coming To America” series. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Well, since I can't give you a full experience in writing, why do you hop into this link and watch Minister Peris deliver for real https://fb.watch/qKPzVLXHnG/