The Story of Bro. Kiza Fidele

The incredible story of Kiza Fidele.

My name is Kiza Fidele. I was born in 2000 and grew up in Mukwezi, Fizi (Eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo—DRC). I was raised by Ann Marie, an old woman who adopted me and my cousin, Amisi, whom I knew as a brother until 2013. Our parents had died due to war in the year 2002, when I was just two years old, leaving us with no one to take care of us.

Concerning the death of our parents, I can’t tell exactly how they died, but a lot of people were killed during that time. Some were locked in their houses and burned. Ann Marie did not tell us exactly how they died, nor did we see where they were buried. We were told that due to the massacres, people were buried in mass graves. So, I don’t know if it was the same case as our parents, but most likely that is what happened.

Ann Marie was everything that we had. I don’t remember her giving or taking us to Bible studies, but she was prayerful. I remember there were rebels who came into the village to forcefully take things from the villagers, especially those who were travelling. So, one night they came, and there were many gunshots all over the village. Ann Marrie gathered us in her bedroom and started praying very hard. She even asked us to pray as well. After prayers, she told us to sleep beside her in her bedroom. This event helped develop my trust in God.

Ann Marie was very nice and a God-fearing woman. She took good care of us like we were her own children. She took us to school and worked hard to provide us with the essentials that we needed to go to school. She also took us to the Catholic Church where she worshipped. We led a peaceful life until 2011, when Ann Marie, our main support and our best friend, died. After her death, Ann Marie’s son, David Nyarugabo, started taking care of us. He got married and went to his uncle to ask for the inheritance left for him by his father. His uncle was reluctant, and he got so angry about that. When David kept confronting his uncle for his inheritance, his uncle wanted to get him out of his sight. So, he plotted to kill him.

In early 2011, David discovered his uncle’s plan, and he even knew that his uncle had already hired people to kill him. He decided to flee to Kenya. He couldn’t leave us behind because he was the only person we knew as a family. In August 2011, we arrived in Kenya and submitted ourselves to the UNHCR offices as refugees. The UNHCR took us to Kakuma Refugee Camp. In September 2011, Amisi and I tried to join a nearby primary school. We wanted to join the sixth-grade class, because that’s where we left off in DRC. So, we were asked to count from 1 to at least 10 in the English language, but we couldn’t because in the DRC, they didn’t teach English in primary school. So, they said we had to start fresh from class one. We felt so sad that we both left school, but joined in 2012. Studying in a new language was hard. We could hardly understand the teachers. But this time we didn’t give up. Through hard work, dedication, and the help of God, I was top of my class by the end of the same year (2012).

Early in 2013, Amisi and I went to watch a football match at a nearby football field. After the game was over and it was time to go back home, we couldn’t see one another, so we started shouting each other’s names. My cousin would shout “Kiza” while I shouted “Amisi.” Amisi was named after our grandfather. A certain man heard us calling out those names, and when my cousin and I were together heading home, that strange man approached us, exchanged greetings and was curious about knowing us better. He wanted to see our parents, so he asked if we could take him with us to our home. Being teenagers, it wasn’t a big deal. We took him home, where he introduced himself as Mulumba Byose Arsene. That evening, Mulumba and David had a very long conversation. When Mulumba left, David called us and told us that, apparently Mulumba had recognized his father’s name and that he was our uncle! Mulumba was even willing to look after us. So, David and Mulumba started the legal process of handing us over to him through the UNHCR. Arsene was interviewed and proved he was really our uncle. He even told us that Amisi and I were cousins, not siblings, as we had always thought. When the process was complete, we moved to his house, where we found another two cousins of ours who were living with him—Shabani and Mema, the children of our aunt. We still live together as a family, up to today.

In 2014, a war broke out in Kakuma between the Great Lakes (Congolese, Burundian, and Rwandese) and the Nuer of South Sudan. The situation was so scary that most of the Great Lakes moved into nearby police stations for protection, including us. We stayed in a police station for almost two weeks and then returned to our homes. However, there were still a lot of insecurities, so people chose to stay close to their homes. Because of this, we couldn’t attend service in our Catholic Church, which was far away.

My cousins and I started attending a nearby church, a Christadelphian Hall. Their teachings were very strange to us, especially the fact that Satan is not a supernatural being, and that we were not going to go to Heaven when we died. This was extremely hard for us to believe at first, while at home, we made jokes about these teachings. The Christadelphians had a Bible study program every Saturday, which we attended, and began asking questions. One thing that started drawing my attention was how the Christadelphians provided many proofs from the Bible concerning their proclaimed teachings. Even when the situation in the camp became more secure, Amisi and I never stopped going to that hall. Amisi even wanted to get baptized in 2015, but later he stopped abruptly. He even stopped going to church. Amisi is a footballer who plays defense and he loves it so much. I think this was why he stopped being interested. The Bible studies in preparation for baptism were done daily and in the evening. This meant there was no time left for him to practice with his teammates, as the practices were done in the evening as well. He was one of the team’s best players, so I think he also has some pressure from his peers.

I kept studying along with Bro. Atembo, who was a few years older than I and had already been baptized. His friendship made things easier. When UNHCR founded a new camp, Kalobeyei settlement, in 2017, Atembo and I began riding bicycles to Kalobeyei to do door-to-door preaching. We gathered a group of people willing to know the truth from the Bible, and we invited older brothers to continue with the teachings and make clarifications for a better understanding.

In 2018, when I joined Secondary School, I decided to get baptized into Christ.

We also kept inviting Uncle Mulumba to Bible studies, where he could ask many questions that were always answered by thorough explanations from our brothers in Christ. He and his wife stopped going to the Catholic Church and decided to study the Bible. In January 2024, they both got baptized into Christ.

I graduated from Secondary School in December 2022. I struggled to find a scholarship through UNHCR, but I didn’t find any. When I had given up, Agape In Action offered me a fully funded scholarship in September 2023.

I am now pursuing a course in Civil Engineering at Ziwa Technical Training Institute. Atembo and I are together in this institution, although he will be graduating this year, leaving me for another full year on my own. But we’ve been working together here at the college, conducting door-to-door preaching, holding Bible studies with fellow students, and we are praying that God may help us establish an ecclesia in this area.

This year (April 2025), we were privileged to attend the LIFE Program in Nakuru with other youths. Atembo attended for a second time to help out as a LIFE grad. I met an amazing group of brothers and sisters from Canada and Australia, who helped us understand the Bible better. This program also imparted skills that helped us grow immensely in other aspects of our lives, so that we can become better leaders in our respective ecclesias.

We thank God for the many blessings that we are counting. We pray that God may strengthen us in serving Him, preaching His word and growing firmly in faith that we may inherit His Kingdom eternally on earth.

Kiza Fidele,
Kakuma Ecclesia, Kenya