There was drama at the Nairobi Central Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nairobi on Saturday after worshipers engaged in a fistfight.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that things started going south when a meeting was allegedly scheduled to discuss a group that is seeking separation from the church.
Standard Digital has learnt that the group which is known as the Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference (NCC) had gone to court to challenge the church leadership.
They, however, lost the case prompting the church leadership to have a crisis talk on the way forward.
In video footage seen by Standard Digital, a group of men are seen standing at the pulpit.
A push and pull situation thereafter ensues as worshipper walk to the podium amidst shouts and cries.
Reports also indicate that the Church’s head, Pastor Jean Pierre Maywa, was roughed up during the incident.
The Church is yet to make an official statement on the matter.
In January this year, wrangles in the church intensified prompting the President of the General Conference of the SDA Church, Ted Wilson, to pass a message on Twitter.
“Please join me in praying for the leadership of the East-Central African Division – President Blasious Ruguri, Secretary Alain Coralie, and Treasurer Jerome Habimana,” he tweeted.
The church’s head elder responded to Wilson: “Yes, elder Wilson. That’s my division and leadership here is divisive... pitting brother against brother, planting negative ethnicity. Central Kenya Conference is on the spot right now. Much prayer is needed for the largest church in the division: Nairobi Central Church.
In December 23 last year elders locked the offices of the two pastors, situated along Jakaya Kikwete Road in Nairobi.
It took the intervention of the Central Kenya Conference (CKC), using officers from the neighbouring Nairobi Area Police Station, to have the two pastors access their offices the following day.
Later on, a letter by First Elder Enock Kinara and copied to the General Conference of SDA based in the US, said the two pastors had failed to reconcile despite several interventions.
They recommended that church membership ought to be consulted before new pastors are deployed to serve any church.
Here is the video footage of the incident Courtesy of INO TV Kenya:
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