By Elimu Assistant Team 
Factors which hindered the expansion of the missionary work in Kenya in the 19th Century
- Lack of trained personnel such as ministries, catechists, evangelistic and teachers to do missionary work
- Lack of resources ( money), to expand the work and put up facilities For missionary work
- Poor infrastructure e.g. roads and other means of communication. Missionaries could only stay in one station and traveling from one place to Another was difficult.
- Failure by missionaries to use appropriate methods and approaches to win the Africans to Christianity.
- Negative attitudes and lack of interest by Africans to Christianity
- Language problems, missionaries would not communicate effectively with the local people and vice versa. Missionaries spent valuable time learning local languages which they could otherwise put into missionary work.
- Cultural resistance from the local people. Some people felt that becoming Christians would alienate them from their communities
- Environmental and geographical factors hostile climate, difficult terrains, droughts.
- Attacks by tropical diseases, e.g. Malaria, blackwater diseases
- Fear of wild animals
- Fear of hostile tribes, e.g. Maasai, Gallo
- Competition from other religions e.g. Islam and African traditional religious
- Rivalry among Mission societies/ denominations/religious groups
- Attitudes of some missionaries towards Africans- considered Africans primitive/savage/untutored/ unable to comprehend Christian abstract doctrines
- German missionaries were not accepted in British colonies
- Contradiction in the Christian message / Some condemned the use of alcohol while others tolerated it some condemned polygamy while others tolerated it, circumcision of women.
