BY ADVENTIST REVIEW
staff

A January 10, 2014, burial is scheduled for Seventh-day
Adventist pastor Evans Orina Osugo, who
was killed December 29, 2013, after being attacked on the Kenlands housing
estate near Nakuru Township, Kenya.

Osugo, 60, had most recently been a pastor in the Central
Rift Conference in Kenya, most recently in the Kaptembwo district. He began his
service to the church in 1989 as a literature evangelist. At the same time, Osugo
attended Kamagambo ministerial college and began serving as a district pastor upon
completion of his studies in 1991. He was married to Jane N. Osugo and has four
children, all of whom survive.

According to Catherine Ontiti, communication director for
the East Kenya Union, Osugo had gone to a local “supermarket to buy some items
and on his way out met with some people who operate transport people with motor
bikes- here commonly known as boda boda. They started harassing him with
some taking his groceries while others searched his pockets.”

Osugo “happened to know one of them as one whom he usually
hires too transport him and he asked him why he was part of the gang that was
harassing him, Ontiti said. However, that “man started shouting that [the] pastor
was a thief and had stolen a motorcycle. When [Osugo] sensed the danger, he
decided to jump over a fence to the neighboring home; by that time the group dragged
him to the road and lynched him.”

Kenya’s Daily Nation
newspaper quoted a local Adventist church official on the tragedy: “It is very
sad to learn that Pastor Osugo tried to plead for mercy as he confessed
innocence... but his attackers went ahead to beat him to death,” Central Rift Conference
president Reuben Korir said on January 5, 2014, during a prayer service at the
attack site.

The newspaper reported the attackers denied Osugo’s request
to say a final prayer.

Eight arrests have reportedly been made, although media
reports say the investigation continues.