Page 20 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 8

FAITH STORIES

We had the absolute honor of interviewing Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Film
Classification Board who shared his faith story with us. One thing that stood out is how willing one must
be to pay the price for taking the positions that God wants us to take. But the rewards, dear friends, the
rewards are simply priceless. Below is a brief excerpt of this energizing conversation, which you can also
watch on our Youtube channel. Msingi Afrika TV.

DR. MUTUA, YOU ATTRIBUTE the preaching life properly, I started MAKE THE CHOICE OF GO-
YOUR LIFE'S JOURNEY TO reading the Bible, I started looking ING INTO JOURNALISM?
THE GOODNESS AND FAITH- at the challenges we were facing and There’s a sense in which one’s life’s
FULNESS OF GOD. KINDLY seeing the hope that is prophesied in blueprint is actually determined by
SHARE WITH US WHY YOU the Bible or that is in the scriptures. God and – if you’re prayerful – you
SAY SO. I started relating my story with oth- can get a sense of where God is lead-
My Christian faith and my firm er characters in the scriptures that ing you. When I was in Form 6 and
standing in my faith in God is some- had such challenges, such difficult I was making a choice for the course
thing that is intrinsically tied to ev- upbringings and so on and how they I wanted to take, I applied for Law.
erything that I do. I interpret life, turned out to be. That changed my There’s something in me that hates
I interpret my work, I interpret ev- life completely to have a perspective injustice and fights injustice and I’m
erything that I do in life, to my re- of hope where there’s despair. A very courageous defending against
lationship with God. I am very un- perspective of having faith that with it and I always have a way of get-
apologetic about it; it is something God all things are possible and that ting my way through words. So, I
that I declare publicly in every office if you work hard and believe in God thought I would be a perfect lawyer,
that I have held since I became an and just put the necessary effort, that but when the results came, I had not
adult. And this is because, early in you can make it in life. Somehow, qualified for Law. My second choice
life, I had an encounter, on the 23rd God lifted me from that environ- was teaching, unfortunately, I was
of June 1984, where I gave my life ment of abject poverty and made me called for Bachelor of Arts in Ken-
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am very a shining example and I became a yatta University, which was way be-
conscious about the place and the leader and even someone to look up low my points, and I was very clear
time where that happened and the to when I was very young. that I would go there and change the
conviction that I felt. Part of it was course and do Education. That was
informed by a lot of happenings in By the time I went to University, my never to be. My appeal was rejected,
my childhood, where I saw the de- mind was made up; I was very clear but the course that I took, Bachelor
liverance of God. how life is supposed to be lived. I of Arts in Linguistics and Sociology,
I was born and brought up in a place knew, beyond reasonable doubt, ended having some of the best lec-
called Mwala in Ukambani, Macha- that you don’t have to be an angel turers of the time and some of those
kos County by peasant farmers. In but there is God and there is the courses, including Critical Thinking,
abject poverty. My parents had a devil, there’s good and there is evil, aligned again to my objective in life.
troubled marriage and there were there’s light and there’s darkness
challenges that I started seeing, but and it is a choice, how you want to To defend what I thought was right,
I was fortunate because I had inter- live your life. Like Martin Luther stand my ground, argue it out, be
actions with the people who would King said, there are two ways to look able to interpret the realities of life
visit our home and my elder broth- at life: one, as if nothing is a mira- from a philosophical grounding and
ers who worked in Thika and other cle or, as if everything is a miracle make a decision that is based on
places and that started opening up and I chose the latter. That, for me, what I perceive to be objective truth.
my mind and stirring my imagina- everything is a miracle, everything is When I finished, I thought I would
tion about the possibilities that are God involved, whether it’s good or become an administrator, because a
out there. bad, nothing happens without God’s lot of people in Kenyatta University
plan and so that has defined who I at the time, who were doing a Bach-
When I went to school I did very am and the decisions I make, how I elor of Arts in Sociology and Lin-
well and I got affirmation from live my life and I can say I have no guistics ended up in the Provincial
teachers who were celebrating me regrets. Administration, as it were then. But
and speaking great things. Early in then, by God’s grace, I ended up
my secondary school life, I gave THAT’S AMAZING AND IT’S bumping into a friend in the streets
my life to the Lord and that trans- SO ENCOURAGING AND IN- of Nairobi who told me that Nation
formed everything. I started now in SPIRING. HOW DID YOU was hiring and he gave me a note

20 | Heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika