Televangelist Pius Muiru takes pastor to court for allegedly grabbingchurch land

Daily Nation

Televangelist Pius Muiru is embroiled in a property ownership dispute with a pastor he ordained five years ago to minister in his Maximum Miracle Centre.

Mr Muiru has taken pastor Andrew Mlewa Mkare to court for converting a piece of land in Watamu into his own use and constructed a semi-permanent structure that houses Yesu ni Jibu Maximum Celebration Centre, a break-away church from his own.

Mr Muiru’s church has instituted the suit through the registered trustees of the Maximum Miracle Centre (MMC) saying it purchased the Plot No 114, Watamu, in 2004 for Sh300,000 using church members’ contributions.

The suit says Mr Mkare was entrusted by MMC with overseeing the process of the acquisition and construction of the church. He was also authorised to act as an agent in the management and administration of the institution in accordance with its constitution.

Mr Mkare, however, defends himself saying that, as a founding member of his church, he offered his private

land that he had purchased using a bank loan and he put up the semipermanent structure on the property long before MMC acquired its own property. Mr Mkare says his church started its operations by renting out several places in Watamu until in 2007 when it managed to secure a loan of Sh396,755 from Barclays Bank and Chuchungi Sacco Ltd.

“My ordination on August 10, 2008 did not pass the ownership of the premises to the Maximum Miracle Centre trustees,” said Mr Mkare in a sworn affidavit.

However, MMC trustees say they raised an initial sum of Sh154,000 in 2006 to acquire the property and handed over the money to Mr Mkare who offered to deposit it with his Sacco to secure a lumpsum of Sh300,000.

The MMC administrator, Coast Province, Mr Njenga Njoroge, said in a sworn statement that Mr Mkare purchased the land on behalf of the MMC in 2000 and made the church and its members believe that he was doing everything in their interest.

“Without the knowledge and consent of the MMC, the pastor began to unlawfully operate his own church from the suit premises and was sub

sequently suspended as he had no authority to use the property for his own purposes,” said Mr Njoroge.

Mr Mkare denied allegations that his church was a branch of Pastor Muiru’s. He denied that it is Mr Muiru’s church that purchased the disputed property, saying the money allegedly contributed by the congregation towards the acquisition of the property would not have amounted to even half of the purchase price.

Mr Mkare stated that he singlehandedly founded the Watamu church with the idea of registering it as “Life Solutions Centre” and set up a committee but a resolution was passed to have the church become an affiliate of the MMC.

Mr Njoroge denied Mr Mkare’s claims saying that the affiliation certificate tabled in court was not genuine as the Watamu church was a branch of the MMC “because Mkare was ordained as a pastor of the church and agreed to be governed or bound by its constitution”.