Waceke, Rebekah

? East African Revival Fellowship (Tukutendereza)
Kenya

COLLECTED MEMORY: The following text belongs to our collection of eyewitness and fragmentary accounts that includes eulogies, obituaries, and primary materials. It may lack sources and proper academic verification for accuracy.

Rebekah Waceke was a trained teacher who taught at Njumbe School. She later married Gacigi Gathoni, also a trained teacher who eventually chose to pursue carpentry. Both Rebekah and Gacigi were devout Christians and active members of the East Africa Revival Movement. After their marriage, Rebekah joined her husband and continued teaching at Mioro School, located near the Aberdare Mountains.

As the Mau Mau uprising reached the hill country of the Aberdares, oath-taking ceremonies began to take place in the region. In response, members of the East Africa Revival Movement organized a two-day convention near the Nyeri border. Waceke and Gacigi, along with other revival members, walked to the gathering on Friday evening and spent the whole of Saturday there. Gacigi was one of the speakers at the event.That evening, it was agreed that Rebekah would return to Mioro early Sunday morning to lead the church service, while Gacigi would return later in the day. On his way back Sunday evening, Gacigi encountered several Mau Mau scouts. That night, Mau Mau scouts broke into the couple’s home. Both Waceke and Gacigi were strangled, and their legs were tied to the bed. Miraculously, their young son was left unharmed, sitting on a nearby chair.

Rebekah had been accused by the Mau Mau of aiding British policemen by giving them water as they passed through the area searching for oath-takers. In a tragic twist, she had also shown kindness to the Mau Mau scouts themselves, offering each of them a cup of tea when they arrived and found her preparing it. That simple act of hospitality ultimately cost her and her husband their lives. Rebekah and Gacigi were buried side by side at the edge of the church plot.

Stephen Kariuki Apollo Warui

Source:

Onyango, Emily. “Gender Equality in the East African Revival Movement.” African Multidisciplinary Journal of Research 4, no. 1 (2022): 21–42. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://journals1.spu.ac.ke/index.php/amjr/article/download/51/47&ved=2ahUKEwiKioGNt-uNAxV2UKQEHRXtDVMQFnoECCQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3A37JSUWELrugIkjVds4Sx

This collected memory was submitted in May 2025 by Stephen Kariuki Apollo Warui, a PhD student at the Boston University School of Theology and a member of both the Presbyterian Church of East Africa and the Presbyterian Church (USA).