For a religious institution that has been rocked by wrangles in recent years, Bishop Isaiah Deye hopes that his recent undisputed election as the new head of the Methodist Church of Kenya should come as a breath of fresh air to a congregation that was growing increasingly weary and frustrated.
“I hope the manner in which I was elected as the Presiding Bishop and the relative stability that followed the process is something that our political leaders, and indeed all leaders in the world can emulate if peace is to prevail,” he says.
Bishop Deye was elected at the 58th Annual Conference of the church which took place in Nairobi towards the end of July, ending years of unprecedented upheavals that marked the reign of the immediate former head Bishop Joseph Ntombura.
As the turmoil played out in public, critics pointed out that for an institution with assets worth billions of shillings but with a weak regulatory framework, it was always going to be a matter of time before controversy came knocking at the Methodist Church in Kenya over management of this wealth.
Some church leaders now say they did not see it coming, because they trusted that leaders elected to top positions would serve knowing that God was “watching them” and discharge their mandate with utmost faith. They were wrong.
The local Methodist Church, one of the oldest with a following of over two million Christians in Kenya, has over the past six decades since it gained autonomy from the mother church in Britain, amassed immense wealth with assets estimated to be worth over Sh500 billion.
From left: Doctor Kanyaru former Presiding Bishop, Doctor Lawi Mathew and former presiding Bishop, Doctor Zabron Thamburi during a press brief at the Methodist Resort and Guest house, Nairobi on March 29, 2023.
Photo credit: Kennedy Amungo I Nation Media Group
It owns Kenya Methodist University (KeMU), Maua Methodist Hospital, Bio-Intensive Centre and Marimanti Training Centre, The Methodist Church Resort and Conference Centre, dozens of properties strewn across the country, insurance brokerage and a books centre among others.
Mr Geoffrey Kinoti, a church leader at Nkubu Synod, says with the institution owning such assets, they probably should have seen the infighting coming.
“I could say that all the troubles we experienced were brought about when people started haggling over how to manage these resources. We have now known that the law should not be made for only Christians in the church but also to ward off people who might want to take advantage of the loopholes,” Mr Kinoti said in an interview, without pin-pointing who exactly was the cause of the troubles.
Over the past decade, the Church has been rocked by a power struggle coupled with endless court battles. Whatever had to go wrong went haywire as immediate former presiding Bishop Ntombura, who was ejected from office by a rival faction, fought his adversaries.
By the time elections were held last month when Bishop Isaiah Deye was elected to be the Presiding Bishop at the 58th Annual Conference, men and women of God had muddied each other in the fight to an extent that many feel embarrassed it all happened.
The church was literally on the cross as some of the 15 Synods delinked themselves from Bishop Ntombura’s leadership.
Rev Deye won overwhelmingly after garnering 281 votes out of the 368 delegates present. The closest contestant for the position, Rev Catherine Mutua, got 35 votes, while Bishop Bundi Miriti and Bishop Harrison Mwiti garnered 26 and 24 votes respectively.
He had taken over in acting capacity after the former presiding bishop Ntombura was ejected from office on allegations of mutilating the church constitution and extending his term illegally.
The new head of the church has received backing from those who contested, among them Rev Mutua who said: “It is now time to heal. We cannot afford to revisit the controversies that rocked our church and we must support our new Presiding Bishop so that he can serve people and God.”
Bishop Deye greets Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi during a visit by the clergy to his Amani National Congress party offices in Nairobi on February 21, 2013.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Bishop Deye admits that the church had been torn by wrangles and divided down the middle due to differences. Going into the elections, he says the delegates drew inspiration from his namesake, Prophet Isaiah, who writes: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).”
It was not only an election of a new Presiding Bishop, but the start of a healing process as it were.
“We decided to break with tradition and that instead of the votes being counted in private, all the boxes were opened and the vote counting done when all were watching. This way, we minimised any risk of complaints of rigging afterwards,” he said.
At this point the interview room breaks into a light moment when this Lifestyle writer points out in jest the irony of talking about rigging (which is basically theft) and church elections in the same sentence.
“Let us admit it, those who do rigging in the General Election or any secular contest are John, Mary and all —I mean they carry Christian names so it means they are most likely Christians. We are human and the prospect of bringing such bad manners into a church election cannot be dismissed,” he says.
In an address to the delegates ahead of the polls, Rev Deye said: “Most importantly, I must remind you that we are here to shape the spiritual welfare and being of our members after very turbulent and trying times that our Church has undergone in the recent past.”
He added: “That notwithstanding, we must with sobriety, psyche and spirit handle the business of the Conference without a blink to look at the past as we forge a new agenda of unity, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation moving forward.”
He must have had in mind the term of the previous leadership that saw the Methodist church’s hitherto calm ways shattered by intense bickering pitting the Presiding Bishop against a section of the faithful who were opposed to the direction the church was being taken.
Court cases were filed as Rev Ntombura faced an open rebellion and accusations of changing the rules as well as imprudent management of the church’s investments.
The history of the wrangles dates back to August 2012 after the controversial election of Rev Ntombura as the presiding bishop.
With backing from the then presiding bishop, Rev Stephen Kanyaru, Rev Ntombura trounced the only competitor, Bishop Deye, who also served as the Conference secretary.
At the time, Rev Deye was seen as the most likely successor of Rev Kanyaru based on an unwritten rule that a conference secretary should rise to the church’s top post.
According to Rev Kanyaru, Rev Ntombura had relocated to Kenya from the UK in 2009 and was appointed the Methodist Missions Coordinator in June 2010.
Barely two months into his new assignment, Rev Ntombura was elected Miathene Synod Bishop during the annual conference in August 2010. He took office in January 2011 as per the Church procedure.
In August 2012 after serving as Synod Bishop for only one and half years, Rev Ntombura was elected the presiding bishop following intense lobbying and canvassing by Rev Kanyaru.
The election of the presiding bishop, who is entitled to two terms of five years each, is done by delegates from each synod and a.
Former Methodist Church in Kenya Presiding Bishop Joseph Ntombura.
Photo credit: David Muchui | Nation Media Group
According to church insiders, events that transpired in 2012 and 2013 immediately after Rev Ntombura took office set into motion what has snowballed into a protracted battle for the soul of the church as a bitter fight kicked off even before the induction ceremony in 2013.
Friends turned into foes leading to boardroom fights that escalated into court battles, excommunication and defrocking.
Seen as an outsider by the establishment since he had worked in the church for only two years, Rev Ntombura was expected to work closely with his predecessor Rev Stephen Kanyaru. After election, the presiding bishop designate is inducted first then installed four months later.
But Rev Ntombura did not wait for this since Rev Kanyaru would accuse his successor of reversing decisions even before induction against church tradition.
“Rev Ntombura’s first assignment even before his induction was to cancel clergy stationing that I had effected as directed by the conference,” Rev Kanyaru said in an earlier interview, and admitted that the regulations on election of a presiding bishop were ignored in 2013 when Bishop Ntombura took over.
“When we appointed Rev Ntombura as the mission coordinator, his file was empty. He said his academic certificates were on the way to Kenya from the UK,” he said.
He added: “Despite the requirement that a Bishop should possess a master’s degree and a degree in theology, he was elected a Synod bishop without these documents and he kept saying the certificates were yet to arrive. By the time I left in 2013, I had not seen his academic papers.”
However, Rev Ntombura dismissed the claims saying he is a holder of a master’s degree. Records from the KeMU indicate that Rev Ntombura holds degrees in theology and business economics as well as a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge.
Later, Rev Ntombura, in an interview with the Nation, alleged that his predecessor in 2013 backed efforts to block his induction through a court suit, saying trouble started immediately his predecessor realised he was not a “yes” man.
At the conference, Bishop Deye assuaged fears of the delegates concerning the church’s institutions investments, saying they were in safe hands.
“The institutions operate under a very competitive environment. I am pleased to note all are still operational and recovering from the disruption of businesses that was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the conflict that followed thereafter emanating from the former leadership of our Church. I appeal to all of us to support as we steadily put a new lease of life to them, and at the same time call upon their respective managers to be good stewards so that these institutions can fulfil their missional mandate for which they were established,” he said.
Mr Kinoti, a renowned businessman who at the height of the controversy was excommunicated from the church but has since been reinstated, says in a consultative process, the church will pursue changes in its constitution that will see that managers of the income generating institutions are recruited competitively and ensure that there is no conflict of interest.
“We also want to ensure that we have room for growth of our church in all parts of the region. I will propose that we put into place regulations that will stipulate how conferences are created and what parameters we are going to use to create them,” he said.
As for the way forward, Bishop Deye reveals that he is sure of almost 75 percent acceptance by MCK members. He says this is due to the fact that all who participated in the election were convinced that there was fairness.
Maintaining that he is only going for one term of five years, Bishop Deye says he wants to believe behind a church that can be counted on and cited as a shining example to other churches and fellow Christians.
“I want a church that is committed to the Great Commission as commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ- preaching the gospel to the world. I want a church that is well established in spirit and truth and where Christians and even non-Christians alike will find refuge,” he says.
Bishop Deye is also a firm believer in reconciliation, basing his stand on Ephesians 4:2 “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” He asserts that the bible has the answer to all of life’s questions.
