PCEA moderator summoned for defying court
Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Moderator of the General Assembly Thegu Mutahi has been summoned to appear in court for defying orders barring him from installing a church official.
The Milimani Court ordered Rev Mutahi to appear before it on May 22 for contempt of court after he defied a judge’s orders not to install Rev David Ndumo as the church Treasurer pending the hearing of a suit in which he is accused of failing to pay a Sh7.4million loan.
On April 9, the Moderator defied orders issued a day earlier by Lady Justice Asenath Ongeri blocking Ndumo from being handed the office of the treasurer pending determination of the case.
The interim orders had been issued after Benjamin Njoroge Mburu, a member of the PCEA Kikuyu Town, petitioned the Milimani High Court to challenge the nomination of Ndumo as a church official.
Swearing in
Justice Ongeri had issued orders barring Rev Mutahi and Robert Waihenya, Moderator and Secretary General of the PECA church respectively from swearing in Ndumo as the Treasurer.
“Pending inter-parties hearing of this application, an order is issued restraining the 1st and 2nd Respondents (Mutahi and Waiheya) either by themselves, agents employees or servants from implementing the Nomination Committee’s Business Committee’s recommendation to the General Assembly to elect, appoint or install David Nderitu Ndumo as Honorary Treasurer of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) during the 24th General Assembly to be held at St Andrew’s Church Nairobi on April 9, 2024,” the judge ordered on April 8.
Former PCEA Moderator Reverend Timothy Njoya stormed out of the event which was attended by President William Ruto and Deputy Rigathi Gachagua in protest of Mutahi’s defiance of the court order.
Njoya termed the installation of Ndumo as the treasurer of Kenya’s second largest church as illegal.
But speaking in Mombasa at the weekend, Rev Mutahi assured congregants that the leadership is intact despite the recent controversy surrounding Ndumo’s installation.
Defaulting payment
Ndumo is facing a court case that dates back to 2019 where he has been charged for defaulting payment of Sh7.4 million loan owed to Sheria Sacco leaving his fifteen guarantors to shoulder the settlement of the debt.
But speaking at the PCEA Makupa, Mutahi who waded into the controversy for the first time defended his move to install Ndumo against the court order.
Mutahi who steered clear from disclosing what measures will be taken against Ndumo if found culpable of any wrongdoing, said that top PCEA office holders are seized of the matter maintaining that though the issue has hit the headlines, it is manageable.
“The church is now under the 24th General Assembly. When you see us in the media it is because long paths must be hilly and with some meanders,” Mutahi said when he launched the Woman’s Guild National Conference.
Sensing that his controversial appointment of Ndumo may scatter the flock, the Moderator called on the church members not to be swayed but to remain dedicated to their fellowship in the church.
“But again don’t be people who are easily frightened. Msikuwe watu wa kununua uwoga. Those who when they hear something, they start to quit their churches fearing that infighting will erupt soon. Oh no. Everything here is manageable,” Mutahi emphasized.
He added: “We also know what is there and God is helping us to resolve. So if there are things you have read in the newspaper or watched on TV just know that long paths must have corners and hills.”
Justice Ongeri had issued orders barring Reverends Patrick Thegu Mutahi and Robert Waihenya— both Moderator and General Secretary of the PCEA church— respectively from swearing in Ndumo as the Treasurer.
Committee’s recommendation
“Pending inter-partes hearing of this Application, an order is issued restraining the 1st and 2nd Respondents(Mutahi and Waiheya) either by themselves, agents employees or servants from implementing the Nomination Committee’s /Business Committee’s recommendation to the General Assembly to elect, appoint or install David Nderitu Ndumo as Honorary Treasurer of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) during the (24th) General Assembly to be held at St. Andrew’s Church Nairobi on April 9, 2024,” The judge ordered.
Mburu told the judge that Ndumo is a judgment-debtor and is indebted to the 15 claimants including Juma Olago, Charles Maina, Jane Njoroge and Benjamin Ombogo in Nairobi, Cooperative Tribunal Case Number Cooperative Tribunal Case Number 727 of 2019.
