Bishop Wanjiru injured as her Nairobi church is demolished
Bishop Margret Wanjiru addressing journalists outside her Jesus Is Alive Ministry's Church in Nairobi on March 6,2024 where she claimed that a group of unknown people invaded her church, beat her up, snatched her phone before they began to demolish it.
What you need to know:
- Several rowdy youths forcefully entered the premises of Jesus is Alive Ministries and started demolitions
- "I did not campaign for land grabbers to come and claim that our church properties are theirs," Bishop Wanjiru said.
Bishop Margaret Wanjiru is fighting for her church on Haile Selassie Avenue after the Kenya Railways Corporation moved to repossess the land on Wednesday, March 6.
Several rowdy youths forcefully entered the premises of Jesus is Alive Ministries and started demolition work, claiming they were sent by the Kenya Railways Corporation.
Ms Wanjiru, who is also a politician linked to President William Ruto's United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party and on whose ticket she contested the Nairobi senatorial seat, accused the government of betraying her.
"I did not campaign for land grabbers to come and claim that our church properties are theirs," she said.
Addressing the media, she showed the rowdy youths demolishing a wall that stands on the land and separates Kenya Railways from the church compound.
The target of the youths was a wall erected on the compound, which they claimed did not belong to Ms Wanjiru, a political leader who was contesting the Nairobi Senate seat on the ticket of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.
"They are many of them, some say they are from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), others say they are from the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and others from the police," she lamented.
"So the government is definitely involved and it is sad that this is the government we campaigned for," she claimed.
If people in the Kenya Kwanza government are able to demolish a church, what can happen to the ordinary Mwananchi," she added.
Bishop Margret Wanjiru is assisted outside her Jesus Is Alive Ministry's Church in Nairobi on March 6, 2024.
It is worth noting that on 6 December 2020, President William Ruto, while still serving as former President Uhuru Kenyatta's deputy, visited the church for a fundraising event. He was the chief guest to raise funds for the construction of their multi-million Glory Twin Towers project, which has stalled for years.
Bishop Wanjiru is receiving treatment at a city hospital where she was accompanied by family and close associates.
Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura made no comment on the matter when asked to respond to the bishop's complaints.
The trouble between the veteran politician and the Kenya Railways Corporation began years ago.
Two years ago, a Nairobi land court threw out a case challenging the construction of a wall between Kenya Railways land and Bishop Wanjiru's church.
The case was brought by the Bishop's Church, Rhambai Patel, S&H Investments and Soma Properties, who sued the Kenya Railways Corporation, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA).
In their petition, they claimed that the ongoing development was blocking their access to Railway Lane, Exchange Lane, Weruga Lane and Haile Selassie Avenue.
They also asked the court to stop the construction of the wall. According to the petitioners, it would have been important if they had been informed by the Kenya Railways Corporation of the plan to erect the wall.
In her ruling, Judge Lucy Kimongoi said JIAM and its neighbours had failed to prove that the development would encroach on their properties.
"The plaintiffs have stated that the wall will be built on the first defendant's (Railways) land. I find that they do not deserve the protection of this court," Justice Kimongoi ruled, adding that she did not find that the balance of convenience tipped in favour of the first defendant, who is the owner of the suit property.
The Nation has also established that after the ruling, the petitioners went back to the drawing board and the case is scheduled to be heard.
It remains unclear why the demolition contractors did not take similar action against the other plaintiffs, Rhambai Patel, S&H Investments and Soma Properties.
By last night, the Atheist Society in Kenya (AIK) had said that Bishop Wanjiru should not be favoured.
In a statement, AIK said the state did not owe the woman of the cloth special treatment "simply because she was a religious leader".
"We wish to make it clear that the state does not owe any special treatment to
Pastor Wanjiru solely because of her position as a religious leader," said the statement signed by Harrison Mumia, the society's president.
The statement made clear that if the pastor had broken any laws, the legal process should proceed as normal.
