This archive report was first published on 25 August 2019.
Published on August 25, 2019, a failed disposal of a Sh150 million plot in Nairobi's Kileleshwa area in 2015 ignited the current wrangles witnessed at the Nairobi Central SDA church.
The church failed to sell off the half an acre parcel of land after claims of fraud and misrepresentation were made against some church officials.
On November 21, 2014, the West Kenya Union Conference (WKUC) met and resolved to sell the land LR 3734/3205 at Mazeras Road, in Kileleshwa, to construct staff houses in Kisumu and save the union Sh9 million in annual rent.
However, the transaction ran into problems after Dr Charles B Maranga and Geoffrey M Asanyo wrote to the church to object the sale on grounds of anomalies in the transfer documents.
Former NLC chairman Muhammad Swazuri instructed that the transaction on the land be stopped until investigations on the ownership were determined.
As a result, the directors of Lufaa gardens sought to cancel the transfer and refund their money.
“Quite sadly, the ill-founded objections have been given effect by the land office to frustrate the transaction and now there are investigations of some purported fraud,” the firm’s lawyer J M Ogeto wrote to the SDA church lawyer Oriema Okoth on June 2, 2015.
“The purpose of removing a member from church register is supposed to be redemptive rather than condemnatory. The leaders were shy to come out and say those they want to remove from the church register highlighted and even stopped fraudulent activities within the church,” said Sammy Masara, a church elder.
