Court allows church to sell prime properties, refuses to reinstall bishop

Methodist church of Kenya Presiding Bishop Rev Joseph Ntombura with some of his church leaders addressing the media at the Methodist Resort and Conference Centre in Nairobi on March, 25rd, 2023 where he said that he is ready to step down to allow fresh election after years of church leadership wrangles. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] The Court of Appeal has granted the Methodist Church of Kenya the green light to sell multi-billion-shilling assets. This decision came after the court rejected a plea by former Bishop, Joseph Ntombura, to halt the exercise. Ntombura claims that some the properties at the centre of the dispute include prime assets such as the Kemu Hub, a five-storey building housing the Kenya Methodist University Nairobi campus on Koinange Street, the campus on the University Way and the Methodist Centre in Nairobi. The property targeted for sale is estimated at over Sh400 billion. But the three-judge Bench declined the plea to temporarily halt the sale pending the determination of an appeal lodged by Ntombura. Other prime properties are parcels of land in affluent areas of Nairobi such as Lavington and Kileleshwa as well as others across the country, including in Lamu, Samburu, West Pokot, Isiolo, Meru, Mombasa, Kilifi and Tana River. The former bishop argued that the sale could severely damage the church and its faithful. He had also requested to be reinstated as bishop during the ongoing appeal process. The court, however, handed the church leadership headed by Acting Bishop Isaiah Deye reprieve. "The court is to decide which party's hardship is greater at the end of the main appeal," ruled the Bench led by Justices Hellen Omondi. "From the pleadings before the court, the respondents' responses are that there is no leadership vacuum, as the church has been operating under an Acting Presiding Bishop, Isaya Deye, from April 5, 2023." The court noted that Deye had been actively overseeing the church's operations, including efforts to heal and reconcile the divided faithful. The judges dismissed Ntombura's argument that the appeal would be rendered nugatory, ruling that the church's operations would not be irreversibly affected by the continuation of the sale. Ntombura is accusing Deye, former Bishop, Stephen Kanyaru and other leaders of conspiring with powerful individuals in the government to dispose of the church's assets for personal gain. "These people are ganging up with the two former presiding bishops," Ntombura claimed. The former bishop also raised concerns about the potential mismanagement of the church's resources. He claimed that recent dealings such as the request for Sh3 billion to build a hospital within Kemu had been inflated to Sh5 billion. Ntombura warned that such actions were part of a broader scheme to exploit the church's wealth. The church leadership, however, defended the removal of Ntombura in 2023. "The church is governed by the Deed of Foundation and the Deed of Church Order, which sets out how the church is managed," said Kanyaru. "His (Ntombura's) tenure was marked by divisiveness and poor governance, and the decision to remove him was made in the best interest of the church."

Court allows church to sell prime properties, refuses to reinstall bishop

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