The Thika SDA church that was thrown into the limelight late last year over wrangles relating to adultery has embraced mediation to solve their issues.
In December last year an elder from the church moved to court suing the pastor and other church officials challenging how they handled the affair his wife had with the said pastor.
When parties appeared before Justice James Makau on Wednesday they informed the court that the negotiations were going in smoothly adding that there is progress.
Lawyer Anitah Masaki holding brief for lawyer Danstan Omari, told the court that indeed talks were ongoing between all parties except the said pastor who had the affair.
Masaki told the court the pastor was not attending the said negotiations but the meetings were still going on in a bid to reach an agreement.
“Your honour they are making progress, we are asking for a further 21 days to enable an out of court settlement” Masaki said.
The Lawyer representing the pastor told Justice Makau that his client was indeed part of the talks even though he was not there physically he supports mediation.
“There have been separate meetings for the mediation and my client has been part of them” the court heard.
According to parties, tremendous progress has been made and they need a bit of time to conclude talks so that they can record a consent and withdraw the matter from court.
Justice Makau allowed their application for more time and directed that the matter be mentioned on June 7.
In the case, the elder had accused the church officials of not taking appropriate action on the pastor who had an affair with his wife.
Through his lawyer Omari, the elder referred to as PM argued that he had been reported to the police by the church officials and the pastor and was afraid he might be arrested over the matter.
In their responses to the court, the church officials claim that PM had not exhausted the internal mechanisms before he filed the case in court.
The Central Kenya Conference officials who are accused of protecting the pastor claim that they tried to resolve the matter.
“In September 2020 our president took steps to visit the SDA Holy Hills church but the petitioners became hostile to him and have refused to give us the opportunity to resolve the matter,” court documents say.
The church officials were the ones who had initiated alternative dispute resolution between the pastor and the elder with the aim of settling the matter out of court.
