Faith Kanyua Mwiti
Lovingly known as “Mama Faith”
24 August 1951 — 17 September 2026 · aged 75
One of Meru's first women Methodist ministers, and a chaplain who sat with everyone
Meru, Kenya Born in Maua, Meru County Resting at Family home, Kaaga, Meru CountyAbout Faith
On the third Sunday of March in 1988 the congregation at Kaaga Methodist Church heard something none of them could remember hearing: a woman's voice pronouncing the blessing from the pulpit as an ordained minister. Faith Kanyua Mwiti, thirty-six, a former primary school teacher with a hymnbook held together by string, was among the first women in her synod to be ordained, and she met the silence that followed with the calm of a woman who had practised being unflappable on thirty-five Standard Four pupils.
She was born in 1951 at Maua, the eldest daughter of a miraa farmer and a seamstress. She taught for fourteen years before a call to ministry that she described as 'a polite but persistent knock'. She served as a circuit minister in Imenti and Tigania, and from 1998 to 2010 as chaplain at Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital, where she sat with the dying, the newborn and the frightened in equal measure. People remember her walking the wards at dawn with a flask of tea and no schedule.
Her sermons were short, funny and full of Kimeru proverbs. She grew bananas and arrowroots behind her house, kept a cow named Grace who refused to give milk to anyone else, and taught a whole town to sing Kimeru hymns in four-part harmony. She married Elijah Mwiti, a headmaster, in 1974; he died in 2011 and she wore his watch every day afterwards. She served on the Methodist Women's Fellowship and mentored at least thirty younger women into ministry.
Faith died peacefully at home in Meru in September 2026, aged seventy-five, with her family singing around her. She leaves two children, twelve grandchildren, and a pulpit that is a little too quiet.
“Preach short, listen long, and always carry tea.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Maua, Meru County
- Resting place
- Family home, Kaaga, Meru County
- Passed away
- 17 September 2026, Meru
Funeral Service
Saturday, 26 September 2026 at 08:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Teacher training certificate
Meru Teachers' College1969 – 1971 · Meru
Trained as a primary school teacher.
Primary school teacher
Imenti schools1971 – 1985 · Meru
Taught Standard Four and led the school choir.
Married Elijah Mwiti
1974 · Meru
A headmaster and her closest advisor until his death in 2011.
Theological training
Methodist Church in Kenya1985 – 1988 · Meru
Studied while teaching and raising two small children.
Hospital Chaplain
Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital1998 – 2010 · Meru
Walked the wards at dawn with tea and prayer.
Distinguished Service to Women in Ministry
Methodist Women's Fellowship2012 · Meru
For mentoring a generation of women ministers.
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Family & connections
Faith is survived by
- Mercy Karimi Mwiti· Daughter
- Dr. Kenneth Mutuma Mwiti· Son
- Beatrice Gatwiri· Sister
- 12 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Faith.
Knew Faith? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- BG
Younger sister
As children we shared a bed in Maua, and Faith would preach to me in the dark about being kind to goats. I laughed then. She went on to preach it to a whole county, and I stopped laughing a long time ago.
- MM
Neighbour in Kaaga
When Mzee Elijah died she handed out his shirts to neighbours and kept only the watch. She said a man should be remembered by what he gave. She made the same gift of herself for fifteen years afterwards, and our village is warmer for it.
- MM
Choir member at Kaaga Methodist Church
Faith could hear a flat note from three pews away and would simply raise one eyebrow, and we would correct ourselves. Under her baton the Kimeru hymns became something extraordinary. We will sing them at her grave in four parts, as she taught us.
- LK
Former pupil, now in Brisbane
Mrs Mwiti taught us Standard Four in 1980 and made every child feel they were her favourite. When I left for Australia she gave me a hymnbook and a small bag of Meru soil. The soil is under my doorstep, and the hymnbook is on my pillow.
- DK
Doctor at Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital
At three in the morning, when a family heard the worst news, Chaplain Faith was already in the corridor with tea. She never preached; she sat. Doctors learned from her how to stay with grief, and I am a better physician for it.
- SM
Minister she mentored
Mama Faith told me my first sermon was 'too clever for the people who needed it'. I rewrote it three times. She sat in the front row and nodded at the right places. Now I preach from the same pulpit, and I can still feel her nodding.
