AIC Faithful disrupt church service in leadership dispute.

Philip Musee addressing the AIC Makongeni faithful on Sunday when they presented various issues that have plagued the church for the last couple of years.

Members of Makongeni African Inland Church (AIC) in Thika on Sunday paralysed church service in protest of “unfair dismissal” of their reverend who they claim was ‘development conscious’.

The faithful stopped any activity within the church for over three hours forcing the regional leadership to convene a crisis meeting to resolve the exit of Rev. James Maluki who has served the church for close to two years.

They claimed that Rev. Maluki was forced to resign by Bishop A.M. Syuma under unclear circumstances.

They gave the regional leadership a maximum of seven days within which they should have reinstated Maluki unconditionally, revoked his resignation letter and commissioned all the 18 elected church elders. They also rejected the ‘illegal’ addition of 4 church elders into the leadership claiming that their inclusion had no blessings of the congregation.

According to Philip Musee who has fellowshipped in the church for over 20 years, the church has been plagued with misappropriation of funds, allegations of devil worshipping and mismanagement of funds allocated to the church-ran school for about two years.

He said that after their initial protest last year, the then pastors were transferred and a new pastor brought to calm the situation.

“It’s slightly more than one and a half years since reverend Maluki came. Our challenges recurred this year after the AIC national elections. Our regional clergy nullified the election of some of the individuals we elected and replaced them with their proxies,” said Musee.

He added that their efforts to have their grievances addressed were given a wide berth, culminating to what was witness on this Sunday.

Josephine Nichodemus said that members were just seeking peace by way of ending wrangles saying that they were tired of unwarranted exchanges between leaders who are expected to be role models in the church.

Currently, the church, which enjoys a membership of over 2,000 adherents, is under the leadership of Pastor Jackson Kisenge.

Bishop Syuma appointed Kisenge in an acting capacity according to a letter dated 15^th January 2018.