Why online church keshas are popular among the youth

Every Friday night, Brian Omondi, like most young people like him, always has plans.

However, his plans do not involve going to the club to drink copious amounts of alcohol, but rather spiritual meditation by attending a church kesha.

At Jesus Celebration Centre where Brian fellowships, they host kesha's at the church grounds, but Brian prefers to attend the services online.

Before the year 2020, online Kesha's were unheard of, and those interested in attending the night vigils had to physically attend at their places of worship.

Activities usually start around 9pm, with a 2 hour praise and worship session, followed by a sermon until midnight, and then another praise and worship session until the early morning.

But Covid-19 came and changed all that. Almost everything went online. Fast forward, the pandemic is behind us and things are back to normal.

But regardless of this, places of worship continued to conduct their services in the digital space, which has resulted to people now opting for online kesha's.

"I had been attending the face-to-face kesha's for the longest time, but as there are times, especially towards the end of the week, when I get off work late, I find it convenient to just log on to my device and join the service," Mr Brian said.

The challenge, he says, is sometimes being distracted by a notification pop-up.

"In my opinion, I always think that when you decide to join the service, you have made a personal decision to do so and to use that time to connect with God and therefore nothing should disrupt you during that particular time," he said.

Precious Owoko, who attends the Kingdom Seekers Church, says online Kesha's are more convenient for her as she has to go to work very early on Saturdays. 

"When I look at the transport factor, considering that the church is quite a distance from where I live, I would find it very difficult to get home in time to change and go to work that early in the morning," said Ms Precious.

She says the advantage of attending online Kesha's is the aspect of being able to communicate with God on an individual level, as opposed to going to church where there is a large group of people.

She agrees that safety is also an important factor, as there are those who live far away and returning home in the early hours of the morning can be a huge safety risk.

Vincent Kimutai, who attends Kingdom Seekers Church, says they have adopted the online programme and called it a church without walls, and the main aim was to include everyone.

"It is never restricted to church members only; anyone who wants to join the service can follow it on social media, television and radio. We also have a diverse audience, both young and old, joining the service on these platforms," he said.