• Faithful said the church’s constitution required a diocese division petition signed by a minimum of six people be considered by the synod.
• A February petition by the faction was rejected.
Faithful agitating for the division of the Anglican Church’s Mbeere diocese have accused a bishop of intimidating them to drop the move.
The group led by Lay Canon John Njiru Nguru, Pius Njiru, Jacintah Muthini, and Duncan Musyoka, accused Bishop Moses Masamba of secretly summoning two of their members and threatening them.
Speaking to the press yesterday at Kiritiri shopping centre the about a hundred faithful said the church’s constitution required a diocese division petition signed by a minimum of six people be considered by the synod.
“We are still pursuing our demands but because the bishop has decided not to heed our calls, we are going to use other means at our disposal,” Nguru said.
The group said time was ripe to break up the diocese after its 21-year existence and accused the Bishop of favouritism and bias.
Masamba has allegedly been concentrating most of the church development in his Mbeere North Sub-county and discriminating Mbeere South.
They claimed Mbeere South contributed over Sh21 million to the church while the Mbeere North only Sh9 million.
The bishop is biased in the employment of the staff in the church offices and that most staff was from his home sub-county, the faithful said.
Masamba denied all allegations against him.
He said the two persons who withdrew from the petition confessed that their names and signatures were forged.
The bishop said an agenda for the splitting of a diocese is done during a special synod meeting after every two years.
The last such meeting was held in December 2017 and the next will be in December.
He urged the group to follow the strict procedures laid down by the church if their demands are to be considered.
The group had its petition rejected by the synod in February for failure to follow procedure.