Kenyans in Uproar over Pastors’ Ban at Community Celebrations
By Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted April 14, 2011
LOWELL, Mass_Details on the banning of 3 members of the clergy from attending the upcoming Kenyan community celebrations continue to emerge. The celebrations to honor the Boston Marathon runners as well as celebrate the Easter holiday are to be held at the St. Stephens church this coming Sunday March 17th.
The Kenyan ambassador to the US, Hon. Elkanah Odembo is scheduled to attend the event.
However, the marathon runners will not be present at the Sunday event in Lowell since they are scheduled for other official events with the Boston Athletic Association , the official Boston Marathon sponsors, together with their individual sports agents.
Numbers of enraged Kenyans have come up in support of the victimized pastors and have demanded that the venue be changed from the church to a more neutral place.
However, it is not clear whether organizers have the will power or enough time to change the venue.
Scores of concerned Kenyans have said that it is time for the Kenyan community to have a non- church based organization that will be responsible to organize any civic events with elected officials at the helm and remove all political, business and civic meetings from the Holy places of worship.
If this happens, many people contend that it will avoid the embarrassing fiasco taking place at the St. Stephens church where, after differences with the current pastor, three other pastors who had been serving in the same church for long were surprisingly labeled as threat to public peace hence banned from taking part in the upcoming community celebrations.
During the Jamhuri day celebrations last year, a fight broke out between members of the clergy in Boston who formed two camps demanding superiority and rights to organize and run the Kenyan National celebrations.
This year however, the two camps appeared to have found common ground and have teemed up to organize the marathon and Easter Sunday celebrations a move that is viewed as a suspicion by many observers who fear the pastors are still trying to stay relevant and claim the limelight.
However, the unexpected banning of Rev. H. Kamau, Rev. Gerald Wahome and Rev. John Gathogo caught the Kenya pastor’s fellowship by surprise when it broke out in the media.
Sources say that KPF knew all along that the three pastors were banned from attending the National celebrations and wanted it concealed from the public, something that the three pastors disagreed with.
Rev. Horrace Kamau; denied being a threat to public peace
“Personally, I don’t see how I am a threat to public peace. This hurts a lot and I do not want it hidden from the Kenyan community what we have been going through,” said Rev. Kamau in an interview with Ajabu Africa.
“This development is very sad”, said Rev. Dr. Charles Karanja, vice president of the Kenya pastors fellowship upon learning of the bizarre development. “Nobody, be it a member of the clergy or anyone should be banned from going into a church,” he added.
“It’s a tragic day in the Kenyan community in the USA if these pastors are prevented from associating with the rest of the Kenyans during a community event. This is denying them a basic human right”, said a Kenyan who called Ajabu Africa News.
Several members of St. Stephens community church said that it is unfair for Rev. Kimuhu to orchestrate a plot to remove pastors who have been serving them well for a long time by tricking them to get ordained by a Bishop from a different denomination, then urge Bishop Herzog to expel them from the church in the guise of violation of church policy.
“This was a guise by Rev. Kimuhu to make it appear like it was the Bishop Herzog who expelled these pastors and he had nothing to do with it”, said an enraged caller.
According to Rev. Kamau, who has served as a lay reader and a deacon at the church for six years, he is the longest serving of the three pastors; he has always participated in paying for the Mortgage of the church and doing other duties with individuals and families without pay.
“I have never asked to be paid a penny for my service at the church for all these years, so it was a surprise to me when I started noticing that Pastor Kimuhu wanted me out of the church,” said the cleric.
“This is not the first time that he has tried to edge me out because he feared that his remuneration as a pastor will get smaller if I was to be paid an allowance,” Kamau said bitterly.
Reliable sources say that since 2002, at least 3 other Kenyan pastors have been kicked out of Saint Stephens’s church unceremoniously under the supervision of Rev. Kimuhu.
Rev. Kimohu, accused of orchestrating ejection of pastors and eventual banning from community celebrations
According to Bishop Herzog, he had clearly informed Rev. Kamau that he would never be ordained as a full priest under the American Anglican church as he did not qualify for the title.
The Bishop told Ajabu Africa News that despite efforts to help Rev. Kamau qualify to be trained as a priest through the Anglican Church training institute, the pastor did not sign up for training.
“As such, I told him he will be a permanent deacon and not a priest under the Anglican Church”, said the Bishop.
“The other guy, Rev. Wahome, he goes to Africa, get’s ordained as a priest by some church out there, then comes and starts serving in our affiliated church. We don’t do things that way in the American Anglican church,” said the Bishop.
“You just can not come from anywhere and claim to be a priest without the proper training”, he added, saying that this issue is a problem in many churches and different communities in America today.
However, according to Rev. Kamau, his heart has always desired to be a full priest who can conduct all pastoral ceremonies like marriages, baptism, burials and many more.
“I was referred by pastor Kimuhu to Arc. Bishop Githiga of All Nations church based in Texas who agreed to ordain me as a full priest in their church. So together with Rev. Kimuhu me and Rev. Gathogo arranged for a speedy ordination that would be conducted when Bishop Githiga came to Boston to conduct the marriage celebrations ceremony for pastor Kimuhu,” Kamau said.
Arc. Bishop John Githiga from Texas
Due to this, Rev.Kamau said that he fails to understand why Rev. Kimuhu went to all these lengths to have them ordained as priests only to have them expelled a few weeks later on the same basis of inappropriate ordination within the premises of Saint Stephens’s church.
Many pastors who were present at the ordination ceremony have been baffled by the new reasons for the expulsions that have led to the current labeling of the pastors as a threat to public peace at the Saint Stephens church.
Bishop Herzog told Ajabu Africa News that he was completely unaware of the arrangements to have the pastors ordained at Saint Stephens’s church in the ceremony conducted by Bishop Githiga with the full blessings and attendance by Rev.Kimuhu.
“We must get a letter notice if any Bishop from a different denomination is to come and conduct such a serious ceremony in our church. We did not get that,” said Bishop Herzog.
“This is not a good thing at all. The pastors should not be banned from attending the event ’, said Bishop Githiga in an email obtained by Ajabu Media.
A telephone call to Rev. Kimuhu seeking comment on the developments was not immediately returned. When the story broke recently, the pastor declined comment, promising to issue a comment only after Bishop Herzog has commented to avoid a breach of protocol.
Others have decried the tarnished image of St. Stephens’s church which has cultivated an image of a business oriented church due to the many business meetings held at the venue by any individual or company especially those coming from Kenya.
According to callers, some of these business meetings have resulted in Kenyans loosing money after sinking a lot of money in investments that did not grow rapidly as promised or banks that did not actually give business and development loans to those who opened accounts.
Last week, the most recent company to visit Kenyan in the Diaspora, FEP Group of companies held two meetings at the church, conducting presentations that promised Kenyans who sign up for a share of the new start up company at KSH 380,363 ($4,764) per share to become multi-millionaires within 6 years.
The officials said that this would be made possible by rapid share value growth and multiplication through share splitting once the company offers an IPO at the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
Other companies that have used the Saint Stephens church facilities to woo Diaspora investors include the Equity Bank, Family Bank, and the newly announced Ushindi Bank that has not yet started operations as a fully fledged bank as promised recently.
Several concerned Kenyans said that Rev. Kimohu should not be the one at the forefront of calling people to purchase shares of the company that met at his church since if the shares never end up appreciating as much as promised, the pastor and the church’s image will not look good.
Enraged bloggers have asked for an end to trading on the floor of the church and a change of venue in the upcoming community celebrations.
Many Kenyans interviewed said that the marathon and Easter celebrations should be the last community event that the pastors should organize.
“We have many current teachers, event planners and regular people who can put together far better community events than the pastors if they are given a chance. Pastors should give Kenyans a chance to do so rather than try to dominate in every sphere of their lives”, said a caller.
The call was supported by several members of the clergy including the 3 victimized pastors, Rev. Dr.Charles Karanja, the vice chairman of the Kenya pastors fellowship and pastor of the All Nations Pentecostal Church (PEFA) in Malden, Mass, Bishop John Githiga of Texas and several other members of the clergy.
Rev. Dr. Charles Karanja, the vice chairman of the Kenya Pastors Fellowship
“Even in the African culture, if a boy grew up to be a man, the father had to let him build his own house outside the fathers house where he can marry a wife and have his own family”, said Rev. Kamau.
”If the Kenyan community in Boston has reached that point of maturity, I do not see why the pastors do not want to support them to run their own civic affairs and us members of the clergy to appear only for spiritual prayers as it is done back home”, he added.
Recently, saint stephens church has been weathering scandal after scandal that have left many members dissilusioned.
Among some of the serious scandals was the recent banning of the leader of the popular Jamhuri Gospel Live band, Gabriel Mwangi from leading the band at conducting praise and worship sessions amid accusations of widespread and prolonged infidelity that left several familes in the church broken.
Close and reliable sources also say that there is a massive financial scandal going on currently in the church with a large sum of money reportedly unaccounted for.
It remains unclear whether organizers of the celebrations at the saint Stephens church, led by Bishop David Karaya, chairman of the Kenya Pastors fellowship, Rev. Kimuhu, the host of the event, and Bishop Joshua Wambua, a director of the Kenyan Diaspora Advisory Council (Formerly known as the Ambassador's Council) will change the venue to a neutral ground or uphold Bishop Herzog decision to bar their fellow pastors from attending the much awaited community event.
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