•EKUC President Pastor Samuel Makori has refuted the allegations by the elders, saying the said pastor is no longer serving because his contract was not renewed.
•Makori told the Star that in the SDA church each level of the church does its work and so when this issue was brought to the office in early March, the alleged elder’s wife was called into the office and she denied ever having an affair.
A sex scandal at the Thika SDA church is as the center of a wrangle pitting 131 elders drawn from the larger central region against their regional leaders.
A sex scandal at the Thika SDA church is as the centre of a wrangle pitting 131 elders drawn from the larger central region against their regional leaders.
The elders have accused the leadership of the East Kenya Union Conference (EKUC) of not taking appropriate action when the scandal was reported to them.
However, EKUC President Pastor Samuel Makori has refuted the allegations by the elders, saying the said pastor is no longer serving because his contract was not renewed.
Makori told the Star that in the SDA church each level of the church does its work and so when this issue was brought to the office in early March, the alleged elder’s wife was called into the office and she denied ever having an affair.
However, Makori says when she was called back she confessed to the affair with the pastor.
Makori says the woman was lied to that if she agreed that she had an affair with the pastor her husband will take her back.
“With that manipulation she wrote a letter to us saying it’s true that she had an affair but she did not specify what kind of relationship they had,” Makori said.
Makori says the matter is 'church politics' and as a leadership they are ready to defend the decision they took in the matter.
He claims that upon cross examination the woman had inconsistencies in her statement saying that in an earlier statement she said they used to meet in the pastor's car but later said they met in his house.
Makori says the husband brought to them an audio clip alleged to be of the pastor with his wife however he was not able to tell the source of the clip.
But the 131 elders have insisted that the EUKC leadership are yet to take action against the pastor as has been alleged by Makori.
The wrangles have now spilled to court with the elders seeking to remove seven officials from the office for not adhering to the church policy.
Through Lawyer Danstan Omari, the elders say they will move to court to challenge decision by the SDA Central Kenya Conference (CKC) and the East Kenya Union Conference (EKUC) not to discipline the man of God according to the church policy.
Alfred Omwando, their District Secretary, said as the elders of the church they wanted to defend the image of the church and that will only occur if all the current officials are removed for gross violation of the church manual.
They faulted the leadership for not taking disciplinary action against the pastor even though they have "overwhelming evidence".
Elder Ezekiel Kurunye, while addressing the congregation at Thika Central SDA church, said they have M-Pesa statements showing the pastor had sent money to the elder’s wife for over two years.
The wife had also confirmed to having an affair with the pastor and so the local church took action against him by removing him from active duty due to the act he committed.
The Star reached out to the alleged pastor and he referred us to his lawyer Kirimi Mbobua who said they will not comment on the matter because it will be subjudice even though they do not have a court order now.