PCEA squabbles unlikely to go away any time soon

The 21st general assembly of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), held at St Andrews Church in Nairobi from April 9 – 14, came and went. But it is clearly evident that if the murmurs emanating from some of the commissioners who attended the assembly is anything to go by, the continuing simmering issues and internal quarrels will not disappear in a hurry.

It could also, therefore, mean that those problems were not addressed, or if they were addressed, they were not adequately or sufficiently examined when the assembly ended. Hence, leaving some commissioners and delegates dissatisfied and disillusioned about the path and direction the church intends to take, even as it looks forward to and prepares for the next conference, in about four years’ time.

The church – one of the so-called big four mainstream churches, the others being the Anglican Church, the Baptist Church and Catholic Church – is plagued by financial scandals that have been playing on and off in the public arena for several years. Nothing strange or odious about the PCEA in Kenya being caught up in a “secular scam” – apparently, this is the stock-in-trade of a majority of the churches, mainstream or otherwise. In fact, the corruption in the “otherwise churches” is worse, morally and financially.

DIRTY LINEN

That notwithstanding, the strange story about the PCEA in Kenya is that it has been unable to keep a tight lid on its dirty linen and internal shenanigans, away from the prying eyes of the public. The hauling to court of the church’s former moderator, Rev David Gathanju, for example, over the alleged looting of the church’s coffers to the tune of Sh40 million has not helped cast the church in the righteous eyes of Christians – PCEA or Pentecostal.

The alleged fraud was first discovered by Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) investigators, who noticed strange movements of the church’s money banked at KCB, with the cash being funnelled into what the officers considered to be “dubious” accounts. Their investigation, with collaboration from the church’s leadership, is what led to Rev Gathanju and five others being charged in a Kiambu court. “I had hoped that the assembly would, at the very least, come and tell us Christians the facts and truths appertaining to the alleged theft,” said a visibly upset commissioner who attended the assembly.

“Instead”, continued the commissioner from Milimani South, Nairobi, “the leaders danced round the issue and at the end of the assembly, all that they told us is, ‘Let us pray for the church and its leaders and for the difficult task that leaders have of leading the church of Christ’. I was very disappointed.”

TWO CAMPS

“It was obvious the leadership did not want to ‘rock the boat’ even as they rightly claimed that Jesus Christ is the ‘rock of ages’. When some of us commissioners tried to push for a cogent answer, we were shut off with the threat of sub-judice.”

That particular scandal has split the church’s leadership into two different camps: the ex-moderator Gathanju camp vs current moderator Rev Julius Guantai Mwamba’s. The Gathanju camp has been warning the Mwamba camp not to push them “too hard”, or else they will also “spill the beans”.

“What has happened is that the camps have been trading accusations and counter-accusations,” said the commissioner. “It has been, of course, a very ugly and unchristian state of affairs.”

Even though Gathanju is no longer at the helm of the church’s leadership, his camp within the church’s hierarchy feels Mwamba and his group have been pushing for the “persecution” of Gathanju, yet “even Mwamba himself is as sinful as Gathanju,” said one of Gathanju’s followers.
The church is supposed to be the light of the righteous ways of the Christians, said one of the agitated church elders, “but instead of shining the light of Christ into the dark abyss of sinful activities, the church is busy covering those very sinful activities.”

TOO DEEP IN COOKIE JAR

The mzee told me the church’s assembly began on the wrong sinful footing. “Can you imagine on the first day of the assembly’s deliberations, the church invited seven KCB bankers to come and present to us the different products that the bank was willing to offer the church’s business dealings?” The mzee said that was off-putting and it suggested to him there were some leaders who apparently were looking to benefit from this arrangement. “Who had invited the bakers, because they certainly would not have invited themselves? The word of God is being sold like cabbages in the market.”

The mzee told me corruption was a great concern and worry to the multitude of PCEA Christians, “because we cannot be contributing money that ends up in the ministers’ pockets. If they continue like this, that is with the leaders’ unchecked dipping of their hands into the cookie jar, the cess collection will drop. The Christians are not happy at all.”

If the church’s leadership is corrupt and unworthy of emulation, how is it expected to tell others, especially the government leadership, which is riddled with corruption and waywardness, that it has no moral and political authority to claim leadership on the Kenyan people.

Mr Kahura is a senior writer for 'The Elephant', a Nairobi-based publication. Twitter: @KahuraDauti