Police investigate fight at Kisii SDA church
Nyabigena SDA Church in South Mugirango Constituency, Kisii County.
Police in Kisii are investigating an incident in which 10 worshippers of the Nyabigena Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church were injured after a fight broke out at their church during Saturday's service.
The chaos is said to have been sparked by a dispute between two factions over who should lead the church.
The two conferences involved in the dispute are the Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference (NCC) and the South East Kenya Conference (SEKEF).
According to Ms Martha Bosibori, who was injured in the scuffle, there has been an ongoing dispute between the two conferences over who owns the church.
"All hell broke loose when one of the church elders announced to other faithful that there were traitors who had attended church last Sabbath. As soon as he had finished making the announcement, unknown people stormed the church and started roughing up Christians," Ms Bosibori said.
In a video showing the ugly scenes inside the church, those involved in the chaos can be seen kicking and punching each other.
Plastic chairs are thrown everywhere as the fighters try to get the better of each other.
Women can be heard crying and complaining about what is happening.
"What kind of church is this? Why are you beating me when I try to save some of our people?" a woman's voice is heard in the video.
The leadership of the SDA church has yet to comment on the matter.
When the Nation arrived at the said church, a group of elders and pastors were holed up in a meeting inside the church.
"Let us first consult among ourselves and see if we will address you," said one of those at the meeting, who declined to identify himself.
Nyamarambe Sub-County Police Commander Thomas Parkolwa confirmed the incident and said they had taken up the matter.
"We were called there later after the fracas. It is not within our mandate to determine who owns the church, but when people become violent, we have to respond. Our officers have taken up the matter and we have started investigations. When we arrived at the church, no one was there and they only came to report to us when the said fight had ended," Mr Parkolwa told Nation.Africa on the phone.
The police boss said one faction was unwilling to cooperate with them.
"We have tried to reconcile them. We have asked them to explore other means of conflict resolution, but there is one faction that does not want to hear anything. They are the ones who released the video of the fighting, wanting it to go viral. It is so unfortunate that such incidents can happen in the modern church," the police boss added.
He urged residents and other organisations to find other ways of resolving conflicts rather than resorting to physical violence.
