Former Ushindi Pastor to face Criminal Probe for Sexual Abuse; Tensions Flare in Church Ushindi church members and PNNE officilas join hands in prayer at the end of a consultative meeting last Sunday at the Eliot Presbyterian church in Lowell to figure out how to remove the defrocked former pastor from the pulpit. The former pastor, Dr. Mumbui Karimi still claims to be the official Ushindi church pastor. He is now facing a criminal probe over the sexual abuse charges that he has already denied. However the developments have thrown the largest Kenyan community church in Boston into serious turmoil.
Pic by H.Maina/Ajabu Media
by Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted March 16, 2011
LOWELL, Mass.,_The Kenyan Pastor of Ushindi Presbyterian church in Lowell convicted of 3 counts of sexual abuse and sexual malfeasance charges by a church based tribunal, then later defrocked for violating the terms set forth before restoration as a Minister of the word, will now face a criminal probe for the bizarre charges.
Dr. Mumbui Karimi is now expected to appear soon in a court of law to answer the charges being investigated by detectives at the Lowell Police Department.
The announcement was made during a meeting between the Presbytery of Northern New England (PNNE) and concerned Ushindi church members on Sunday at the Eliot presbyterian church.
At the same time, more financial anomalies came to the fore when it was revealed that it Ushindi church received $10,000 in flood disaster relief from the Presbytery of Northern New England (PNNE) to help members of the church affected by flooding problems at their properties or residences during the 2007 flooding disaster when the Merrimack River bust its banks in Lowell .
The money, it was revealed, was not announced to the congregation, and only a few people are known to have received the aid.
The new developments emerged on Sunday during a meeting between the Presbytery of Northern New England (PNNE), and members of the Kenyan community Presbyterian Church (Ushindi) held at Eliot Presbyterian church in Lowell where Ushindi church first started.
Earlier during the same day, drama erupted at the embattled church when a fed up parishioner in the congregation stood and challenged Dr. Mumbui during the church service to explain why he was preaching love in church while it was obvious that members were treating each other with bitterness depending on what side they were perceived to be on the money and sex abuse scandal.
“What love are you preaching to us here if we are being told to go around the church singing Geithia Mundu na Umwire Niumwendete (a popular Kikuyu gospel hit titled ‘Greet a someone and tell them you love them’), but some people are refusing to greet some who don’t agree with but are seated next to them, while swerving around “enemies” to greet those who they like”, asked a man in his native Kikuyu language, cleary frustrated with the palpable volatile situation.
Dr. Mumbui Karimi, the former pastor of Kenyan Community presbyterian church(Ushindi) in Lowell. Dr. Karimi insists he is still the bona fide pastor at the embattled church. Pic by H.Maina/Ajabu Media
Circumvention of the question by the pastor claiming limitation by court proceedings on the money issue only helped to enrage other members in the congregation who stood up in defiance demanding an answer or no service would take place, raising tensions a notch higher.
“Can you explain to us what is going on in this church now before you preach because some of us don’t like this and we need to understand the problem”, demanded the man.
In response, the pastor objected to providing any answer to the question saying that the matter is already in the civil court and therefore it would be risky for him to ay anything that may be interfere with the court proceedings.
It was at this point that several women who support Dr. Karimi erupted in loud praise and worship songs to drown the argument that almost degenerated into a serious altercation.
Soon, the other women and men on the opposing side joined into the singing suggesting that they too came to worship the same God. This singing went on for a prolonged period before an elderly woman said a similarly prolonged prayer.
She asked members not to judge the pastor harshly for the accusations against him but let God deal with him the way he sees fit.
The song and prayer intervention helped restore calmness which allowed the preacher for the day, Joseph Njonde to start his sermon.
While delivering his message, Njonde decried the developments at the church saying that they reminded him of similar problems at a PCEA church the he used to attend back in Kenya.
Joseph Njonde, who have a sermon on Sunday at the troubled Ushindi church in Lowell
He said that when the problems struck, he was asked to preach, something that has played itself again right here in America.
Njonde said that a day after he preached at the troubled church, a lot of unheard of snow collected itself by a corner of the church building where an absent water collection tank was supposed to be sitting.
Kenya lies in the tropics and therefore snow on the ground is an extremely rare phenomenon, which made the occurrence even more bizarre.
“I commented to the people in church that the snow had accumulated itself to look like a grave like a grave”, said the apostle.
“Soon, many unexplained deaths started happening to members of the church and their families”, he added.
He urged Ushindi church members to calm down and let God solve the problems they had in church in the right way rather than cultivating bitterness with one another.
More news on the Ushindi church crisis coming soon.
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Ushindi church members during a lengthy praise & worship and prayer session that diffused a tensions that flared up when the former, defrocked pastor, who still claims be the current pastor, failed to answer a question by a member addressing the bitterness that has engulfed the largest Kenyan Community church in Boston.
Pic by H.Maina/Ajabu Media
