This archive report was first published on 18 August 2019.
On August 18, 2019, Irish preacher Rory Bracken was finally acquitted after spending 23 days in a Kisumu prison. He was initially charged with being in Kenya illegally and failing to raise a Sh200,000 bond.
Bracken, 59, a preacher with Testify World Ministries in Tullamore, Ireland, entered Kenya on January 14 through the Malaba border with a one-month visitor's visa. He visited friends, preached in Kisii and Mai Mahiu, and later traveled to Siaya on February 5.
Bracken claimed that a Kenyan evangelist from Siaya County, whom he met on Facebook, abandoned him after he was arrested. The evangelist had initially welcomed him to Kisumu but failed to testify in his favor during the trial.
Bracken fell sick in prison and was later released on humanitarian grounds after the court reduced the bond to Sh50,000, which was paid by friends. He was acquitted on Thursday after Kisumu Resident Magistrate Linah Akoth found him innocent.
Bracken expressed his disappointment and anger at the ordeal, terming it an affront to the freedom of worship. He also spoke of the loss of his twins in a miscarriage, which he attributed to the stress caused by his imprisonment.
