AIPCA Faction Calls On President To Intervene In Leadership Row.
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| Francis Kamami of Maragua Diocese addressing AIPCA Maragua Diocese faithful at Gakarara Parish in Kandara where they rejected the Archbishop-Elect Julius Njoroge and threw their weight behind embattled Archbishop Amos Kabuthu. |
Members drawn from all the 52 AIPCA parishes of the Maragua
Diocese, Murang’a County gathered in Gakarara Parish and declared their full
support for the current Archbishop Amos Mathenge Kabuthu and that they would
never recognise the new bishop until proper procedure was followed to endorse
him.
Ironically, Gakarara is home to the Archbishop-Elect Julius
Njoroge Gitau and was the venue for his unveiling as the new AIPCA spiritual
head on the 14th of this month.
“We the parishioners of the AIPCA Maragua Diocese hereby
declare that we give our total support to Archbishop Amos Mathenge Kabuthu as
our spiritual leader and do not recognise the leadership of Bishop Julius
Njoroge as his election never followed the due procedure of our church as per
our constitution. We are therefore appealing to President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose
powers have been vested in the country’s constitution, to revoke the orders by
the courts that illegally ousted Archbishop Kabuthu from office and installed Njoroge.
We cannot have the courts to interfere with religious matters,” said Francis
Kamami, the chairperson Peace Initiative Forum, Maragua Diocese.
Kamami noted that the current divisions were a real recipe
for chaos as had been previously witnessed in the church which on several occasions
resulted in bloody clashes. It was for this reason that he pleaded with the
president to intercede the same way his late father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta did some
50 years ago when the church was faced with a similar situation.
He added that as per the church’s constitution, Archbishop
Kabuthu was to retire at the age of 70 years after a two-term tenure of five
years each. However, upon attainment of the 70 year retirement age, the church
allowed its supreme council to extend his term if they so deemed appropriate, a
matter he said was never considered I the elevation of Bishop Njoroge as the
head of AIPCA.
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| A section of the faithful who rejected their new archbishop seen here singing praises to God during the 'Maragua declaration'. |
“Njoroge and his faction want to seize the leadership of
this church through the backdoor using the courts. He has no authority to assume
any function of an archbishop as he has not been officially ordained as an
archbishop. Any transfers or ordinations purported to have been effected by him
are null and void and we as Maragua Diocese will not allow Bishop Njoroge or any
bishop posted here by him to administer mass in this diocese,” added Kamami.
The chairman said that theirs was a duty to ‘rescue the AIPCA
Church from slavery’ just as the Biblical Moses did to the Israelites.
Archdeacon David Karanja Ndung’u, who has served an AIPCA clergy for the last 38 years, shocked the congregation when he publicly declined his appointment as a bishop claiming that Bishop Njoroge had no authority to ordain him.
(See Also: Primate Claims His Life Is In Danger But Vows To Fight Off His ‘Illegal’ Ouster By All Means.)
“In all my service in AIPCA Church, I have always been ordained and promoted in broad daylight and in the full glare of the faithful. But on the 15th January 2017, Bishop Njoroge and his team ordained me as a bishop at night, something that did not go well with my faith. As I stand here before you, I declare publicly that I decline that appointment and I still support Archbishop Amos Kabuthu as my spiritual leader,” said Venerable Archdeacon Ndung’u.
Similar sentiments were relayed by James Mburu Kimani from Muruka Parish who has been an AICPA faithful since 1952 and Margaret Wairimu Ndung’u, the chairlady Maragua Diocese, who said that they would only recognise Bishop Njoroge as the archbishop of the AIPCA Church if only he was ordained following the procedures of the church.
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