Members of the ACK in Mumias East subcounty, Kakamega, have threatened to march on and camp at the church headquarters in Nairobi to demand their own diocese.
The faithful want Mumias diocese divided and Lubinu diocese created.
They said Lubinu is the oldest ACK church in Western region and has given birth to the Nambale, Katakwa, Mumias, Butere and Bungoma dioceses.
“We are demanding the creation of this diocese or we shall boycott participating in the activities of the ACK in the Mumias diocese,” Mumias East ACK Christians secretary Douglas Wabuko said. “We are giving an ultimatum to Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit to declare Lubinu a diocese, before we pull out of the Mumias diocese unceremoniously, with all the 25 priests, archdeacons, synod members and lay readers before the end of the year.”
He said they will also not participate in the election of the new Bishop for Mumias after Salala resigned to join politics.
Wabuko said they had called back home all the 25 priests from Mumias East, who were working in Butere, Mumias, Bungoma and Maseno. “We shall elect a Bishop from among the 25,” he said on Saturday at Shianda Polytechnic. “If by October 30 our pleas will not have been heard, we shall march to Nairobi and camp at the ACK province headquarters and demand the Archbishop to address us on this matter,” Wabuko said.
Chairman Cyprian Inzofu said they have written to Bishop Beneah Salala of the Mumias diocese, requesting the creation of the new diocese. He said,”But he has poured cold water on our proposal, forcing us to petition the new Archbishop ole Sapit to intervene.”
Inzofu said Lubinu church has more than 15,000 members from two subcounties – Navakholo and Mumias East – and has enough priests who can run the diocese.
