A shs 10 million donation made to the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) church in 2017 has split the church.
The Church may also crumble because of the fight over the control of the Pastors Retirement Scheme cash that is estimated to be over shs 200 million.
Hot News has exclusive information on the infighting, bad blood and wrangles.
Different camps have emerged with one faction supporting the PAG Kenya General Superintendent Bishop Patrick Lihanda.
Another camp is allied to the Church’s Pastor’s Retirement Scheme Administrator Pastor Nathan Ondego.
According to Bishop Lihanda, the wrangles and bad blood among the Pastors started after together with other leaders from Western Kenya, he visited State House, Nairobi in 2017 before the repeat Presidential elections.
“I received a call from the then statehouse Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu that I accompany the leaders to State House. During our visit, I had written a letter which I delivered to State House. I requested the President to come and support our Church in Nyang’ori, Vihiga County,” Bishop Lihanda said.
He added that the request was received at State House and that during the Conference that had been organized in Vihiga, Deputy President William Ruto visited the church and gave out a donation of shs 10 million.
Lihanda said since then, things have been different, and some pastors started “witch hunt”.
He said senior Police officers in Vihiga County have been telling him that he received shs 10 million from the “Tanga Tanga Group.
Lihanda said his life is now in danger and he wants his security beefed up.
He said he has received threats from some church Administrators.
Speaking at the headquarters of the church in Nyang’ori Mission station, the Bishop said the police are also harassing him and other members of the church without any apparent reason.
He decried the slow pace at which the police are moving in to bringing to book those who are allegedly threatening him.
“Of late we have had some serious challenges and court battles, but I will not go into the details since the cases are in court. However, there is one administrator who is causing all these troubles and we also have a problem with the police in Vihiga County,”
“We respect the law and we pay our taxes as a church and so we are entitled to government services, but the police here are biased in the way they handle the PAG church which leaves a lot of questions” Bishop Lihanda said.
He cited an incident where the police on 24th December 2019 raided one of the churches (Walodeya PAG) in Sabatia sub-county and disrupted the service that was ongoing, dispersing the worshipers without any court order.
He said women and children were whipped by the Police.
When reached for comment Pastor Nathan Ondego refuted the allegations saying Bishop Lihanda was diverting attention.
“Bishop Lihanda is not saying the truth; he is running after a cat instead of a rabbit. There is a Pastors’ retirement scheme which is the cause of all these, but the scheme is guarded by the law and the Retirement Benefits Authority. We cannot compromise on matters of the law.” Ondego said.
Ondego added that Lihanda wants to embezzle the schemes money.
“He owes the scheme shs 14 million. He has several cases in court and is in- fact in contempt of court. He is simply tarnishing my name,” Ondego said.
Ondego denied being behind several court cases after Lihanda alleged that he has sponsored some Pastors to go to court.
Lihanda also alleged that one man by the name Asigo was involved in the abduction of Pastor Peter Gereso where he was taken to Kakamega forest and beaten up.
“The case was reported at Kilingili Police station under OB number 27/07/19. He said there is also another case involving a conspiracy to kill him and that it was reported at Runyerere Police post under OB number 08/08/10/19,” he said.
He said in all these cases, the Police have not arrested the culprits.
Lihanda added that he has filed a formal complaint with the DCI and the IG’s office.
“The Police in Vihiga are harassing me. They have been telling me that they will teach me a lesson for reporting them to their seniors in Nairobi,” he said.
He asked the police to stop taking sides.
Vihiga County Police commander Hassan Barua distanced himself from the harassment and threat allegations.
He said the Police only come in to quell the chaos caused by the members of the PAG church.
“These people are always fighting for leadership; they have many cases in court and they cause chaos, disrupting peace all the time. As law enforcers, when we have information that such a thing is going to happen, we must come and sort it out, by even dispersing the congregation to enforce peace,” Barua said.
However, the Police commander insisted that Bishop Lihanda hasn’t recorded nor reported the harassment claims to any Police station.