Kenyan pastor who fled 'persecution' by powerful Nairobi church leader to be deported from Canada

A Kenyan-born pastor and her family are facing deportation to their homeland after their application for permanent residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was denied.

According to CTV News Toronto, Rev. Rosalind Wanyeki, also known as Rev. Hadassah, relocated to Canada in 2020 as a refugee with her two daughters Joylene (9) and Pearl (6). 

She claimed that her family was forced to flee Kenya to escape persecution from a powerful church leader in Nairobi. 

Over the past five years, Rev. Wanyeki founded North York's Prayer Reign International Church in Toronto and has been leading the ministry as a senior pastor. 

She also enrolled her children in Scarborough’s West Hill Public School. The pastor now fears that her family will be harmed if they are deported to Kenya. 

“I’ve served the community for those five years (here in Canada) and I pray to be safe,” Wanyeki told CTV News Toronto.

“I have tried to reach for help from my MP. I’m getting opposition. I’m getting responses that cannot help me right now and I need help," she added. 

Initially, the family was scheduled to be deported from Canada earlier in the year but the Canadian government deferred the order to allow Wanyeki's children to finish the academic year. 

Now, despite her appeal to the application, Wanyeki and her family are scheduled to be deported on Thursday, August 7. 

She has appealed to the Canadian government to intervene on the matter.