Insanity In The Church of God!

There is something wrong with the leadership of The Church of God in (E.A.) Kenya. Started in 1905 by Wilson, the Church has barely been surviving through the 20^th Century and early 21^st Century. Handed over to Byrum by the missionaries, everything seemed to go on well at least for the camera until the Buruburu Case came up in late 90s and early 2000. This is Civil Case 1506 of 2000 in which case the Archbishop is on record asking a court of law to evict the members of the church he leads from their place of worship, a 4.22-acre piece of land at L.R.79/820. This is not just sad, it is heartbreaking! Corruption was not only being committed by the Archbishop against his own members, but also in the open!

Through the years members of the church dared not to speak of the vices being committed by the leadership for the fear of harsh repercussions. The Archbishop has mastered the art of inflicting fear in the Pastors and forcing ‘respect’ through threats of dismissal and actual summary dismissals by word of mouth in meetings before peers and through phone calls and text messages. This is done through his right-hand person and probably the second most feared person in the hierarchy, the Human Resource Personnel, Rev.Anjela. These are very bad HR procedures in any institution that wants to grow through treating its employees fairly. Upon a transfer, Pastors are expected to report to the new working stations immediately after receiving the transfer letter oblivious of such procedures as handing over nor orientations into new stations. This also negates the fact that these Pastors have families and need time to prepare their families for the shift and change of schools where younger children are involved. Pastors who delay to shift are considered to have absconded their duties!

Much was not spoken about these bad habits until 4^th of April on a Tuesday in 2000, the time painfully penned articles were posted on the Daily Nation blog. According to the articles, the first writer is unnamed, the other one is a Jeff Kens from Eldoret and for some reason they chose to give the short articles the title, ‘Church of God has Lost Direction’. The Articles can be found at; https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/1192-371250-mdrt85/index.html for ease of reference. To make it easier for us, I have quoted the articles below word for word without any alteration.

The recent skirmishes at Buru Buru Church of God have sent trepidation over the entire Church of God fraternity. Some say this came in the nick of time while others argued that it should have come earlier. Whoever is right, the fact is that it is a step towards change.

For a long time, the church leadership has been under one man, the secretary-general who is at the same time the treasurer. He has for a long time been perceived as infallible and omnipotent. This has heavily contributed to the turmoil.

In essence, the Church of God has lost its mission, which is probably why God has not blessed it the way He has other churches.

For a long time, things have been a mess. Those few who tried to ensure transparency have found their efforts frustrated and moved to other churches. Youths have particularly been victims of this act. As a result, this church has remained the property of those who can easily be manipulated. A close look at the yearly diaries of these churches is a case in point.

One is puzzled whether the objective of the church leaders is merely to raise money or to preach the gospel. Perhaps that's why those who seek the Word never stick here long. Right from week one to week 52, the sermons are about inciting the members to contribute towards something – the budget, market Sunday. Kenya church service, Easter, tithe, Christmas monthly, the homeless– you name it.

With all these finances flowing to headquarters, it would have been expected the church would flourish in different aspects, but this has not been the case. Instead many things continue falling apart. The poor pastors in these churches are paid as low as Sh800 a month. It would be paradox if they live righteous lives and dedicated to serve the Lord with these peanuts. To counter this, they have set in motion a system whereby they must be remunerated on all occasions they preside over funerals.

In a nutshell, this church has remained static in a number of areas. The members too have become spiritually lethargic. They have stuck so much on religion instead of salvation.

It is high time the Church of God was overhauled.

Concerned Worshipper.

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I would like to register my disappointment at the way the Church of God leader, the Rev Byrum Makokha and his cronies handle the church. Take the Buruburu saga. I t exposes a lot that the church has been hiding in the past few years under Makokha's tyrannical leadership.

There are several cases where problems have arisen due to interference with the smooth running of the church-affiliated institutions like Mwihila Hospital, Mwihila Press, Mariakani Christian Centre, and Kima Theological College.

Makokha wields so much power that not even a member of the General Assembly dares challenge him lest he get the sack. Were it not for Makokha's subbornness, the Church of God would have by now been the biggest churches in the region.

Most of the pastors are old retired civil servants who earn a living this way and so owe their loyalty to Makokha. The youthful pastors and graduates of Kima Theological College are denied a chance to climb up the ladder and further their theological knowledge since they pose a threat to the church leadership. As a result, most of them run away to different churches. If it is true that the church's constitution requires its leaders to retire at 65, then Makokha should do so and let others take over.

Jeff Kens.

These were words of two troubled citizens who saw that indeed something was wrong not only with the Church but also with the leader, the self proclaimed Archbishop, Dr.Byrum Makokha. Such sentiments, and many others unrecorded, represent the general feeling within the congregation of the Church. Sadly, this misbehavior is not a reserve of Church of God only. Scandals have marred the growth of the Church both spiritually and financially. The scarce Church resources are wasted in endless court battles with different parties. Battles the leadership attracts upon itself due to blatant ignorance, greed and corruption.

It is sad how much effort is put into the wrong things, while the most important agenda of the Church is less prioritized, at least in practise. When one of the congregations awoke in Buruburu in the late 90s and early 2000s he tried to cling on to the Church to the level of being locked up in a remand facility for engaging in violence against the congregants. Both the National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK) and the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK) have remained silent all through and this leaves one to wonder what their role really is, if it's not helping to bring decorum in the activities of their members.

Allegedly, he, with the help of the infamous Church Properties Company General Manager, Rev.Livingstone Ambetsa, also engineered the Kisii land fraud that saw the Church lose a huge chunk of land to a famous bus company headquartered in Kisii town right on the very land that was fraudulently acquired. In exchange, the Church was built for a structure whose cost is a mere fraction of the real cost of the land given to the bus company. For a job well done, the good reverends awarded themselves with corrupt money and built a small office block at the Church’s headquarters in Kima. This is clearly not what Christ meant when He said, ‘go to every corner of the world…’.

The case about the land at Mariakani Christian Center (MCC) on L.R.209/6823 has just but helped to reveal more about the men of God in cloaks. Secretly they wanted to sell the piece of land to a Chinese Developer to demolish the Church and build commercial and residential structures, but the plot was known in good time for the members to mobilize themselves and resist. First through a dialogue which failed miserably because of course because the Byrum and his team could not just sit down to discuss the matter with the curious congregants. Previously, through a non-registered fake company, Byrum successfully engineered the same corruption on another church property on L.R.1/308 whose proceeds he awarded himself and his close friends.

Having no other option, the congregants filed a case in the High Court of Kenya on 20^th September 2018 with the first 1^st mention coming on the 31^st of October 2018 where the court injuncted the defendants. A dialogue failed to ensue on the 10^th of November 2018 before the court, on the 21^st of September 2019 on what was the 2^nd mention, directing that 18^th September 2019 be the 1^st hearing, while at the same time highly encouraging that the parties involved consider dialogue. It was never forthcoming. However, on 24^th of April 2019 and through completely ignorant affidavits, the respondents made an application regarding the suit to have the case struck out in its entirety.

Coming from the men of the cloak, the affidavits were heartbreaking. They are no different from a father denying his own child for absolutely no reason at all. Among the reasons they wanted Justice Obaga to throw out the lawsuit against them was that three of the complainants, who are members of MCC for a combined duration of more than 80 years, had no legal ground to sue the Church leaders on behalf of the congregation and on their own behalf. The other reason they swore on was that one of the complainants was not even a member of MCC! With a benefit of doubt, one can be lenient enough to forgive them for the first reason keeping in mind that they, nor their legal team, understands not what the constitution says about perpetual succession rights.

The fact that an Archbishop can lead a team of reverends and pastors to deny one of the members of the very Church they lead because the member does not agree with their plan to corruptly sell land on which a church sits is uncouth. Furthermore, this land was to be sold without the participation and express permission of the congregation nor were the proceeds going to do anything related to ministry. 411 from a reliable source indicates that these proceeds were to be shared among the few men of cloak at the helm of the Church led by the Archbishop and that even the first instalment from the buyer had been given by the time the case was filed in the High Court no wonder they tried so hard to have the case thrown out.

18^th of September 2019, the day that was to be the first hearing, turned to be a mention and both parties received directions from the Court. Both parties were to make their submissions upon which the Court would make a ruling on all preliminary applications on 30^th of January 2020. Surprisingly, Justice Obaga made a ruling dismissing the case as being weak. When a judge dismisses a case at a preliminary stage but then go ahead and include matters of what would have been a full hearing in his ruling then your guess is as good as mine. Sadly, this ruling does not only disadvantage the Church congregation, but also the whole community that benefits from the center at the expense of a few greedy leaders. Absurd! The local congregation has vowed to appeal this unjust ruling and make sure the sanity of their place of worship is maintained.

Following the ruling, the congregation planned and undertook a legal demonstration on 9^th February 2020 in objection of their leaders’ intent to sell their place of worship for individual gains. It is sad, very sad that Rev. Omamo, the Area Overseer and a direct representative of the Archbishop allegedly called armed policemen on the peaceful demonstrators who included children! If at all it was for the security of the demonstrators, then we thank God. It is also alleged that the members leading this fight against corruption have been threatened by the Archbishop, his cronies, powerful politicians and proxies. When an Archbishop chest-thumbs that a church shall be demolished whether the members like it or not then you know something is very wrong.

As the fight to protect church property from corruption continues, the leaders at the Church’s headquarters shamelessly feed off the struggling church members, while the Pastors who are not lucky enough to be near the high table are forced to survive on meagre payments but have to make sure their congregations send money to the headquarters for the Archbishop and his cohorts. An uncle to the former Speaker of the National Assembly under the coalition government, Byrum has failed to lead the Church to the place its visionary founders dreamt of. Anyone who raises concerns about his actions, or the system is expelled from the Church whether Pastors or members. There are also numerous allegations about the Human Resource Personnel, Rev.Anjela, who is rumored to be soliciting bribes from Pastors so that he can post them to somewhat financially stable branches of the Church!

It is evident that Byrum and his fellows are not stopping at anything until their corrupt plans of eating the very Church they lead to the ground succeeds. Just like Buruburu Church, MCC is not giving up on protecting their place of worship for posterity to the benefit of the community. For decades now, corruption has eaten Kenya’s access to free quality education, health care, food security, infrastructure, affordable housing and many other amenities. We shall not allow the Church that should be the custodian of sanity to be the primary propagator of the same vice, especially through its leaders. Good job to the ones that have set best practice for other institutions to learn from. The fight is on!