Effects of Emotional Exhaustion on Clergy’s Mental Health in Africa Inland Church, Ainamoi Sub-County, Kericho County Kenya

Clergy are vital community resources that provide assistance among those in need and are frequently the first to be relied upon amid emotional difficulties. As such, they experience increased risk exposure to burnout. The study aimed to investigate the effect of burnout on clergy’s mental health in Africa Inland Church in Ainamoi Sub-County, Kericho County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: - establishing the effect of emotional exhaustion on clergy’s mental health. The study was conducted in Ainamoi Sub-County, Kericho County, Kenya. This is because Ainamoi Sub-County is where Africa Inland Church (AIC) has the majority of its churches. The study targeted 69 clergy members of AIC from 89 local churches in Ainamoi Sub-County in Kericho County. The findings revealed that emotion exhaustion was common and affected the clergy work since they felt emotionally drained, caused mental illness and stress. The study found that emotional exhaustion had a significant influence on mental health illness (β1= 0.269, P=0.033<0.05). The study concluded that all the three-burnout dimension that is emotional exhaustion .It was recommended that interventions that enhance the frequency and depth of debriefing by professional counsellors should be enhanced. The whole spectrum of predisposing and risk factors that are detrimental to clergy’s mental health should be considered for future psychosocial resource programming. The church should have proper structures to ensure that clergy can assess the needed counselling