Court battle brews over affair between SDA church pastor and elders wife

A case has now been filed in court after a pastor from the Holly Hills Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church in Thika was found to have had an affair with an elder’s wife.

According to the petition, seen by Citizen Digital, one of the petitioners – Peter Mwaura, an elder at the church – in December 2019 learnt that his wife – Mary Nyambura Mwaura – was having an extramarital affair with Pastor Joshua Mbugua Njuguna.

Elders of the Holly Hills Church board reportedly sat and deliberated and, upon hearing all the parties, found the two – Mrs. Mwaura and Pastor Njuguna – culpable after they confessed.

In accordance with the church policies, the board hence recommended to the Executive Committee of the Central Kenya Conference that the two be reprimanded.

The Executive Committee is now however being accused of, in a bizarre turn of events, exonerating the pastor while however finding Mrs. Mwaura culpable for adultery yet “it takes two to tangle.”

The petitioners, led by Mr. Mwaura and other church elders, on diverse dates, wrote protest letters conveying a vote of no confidence to the East Africa Union Conference and Central Kenya Conference on the manner the case had been handled saying it “put the entire SDA Congregation to ridicule and disrepute.”

“…the aforesaid letter elicited no response, they instead learnt that the erring pastor had been reinstated and was on active payroll of the Central Kenya Conference treasury,” read the petition filed by lawyer Danstan Omari.

Mr. Mwaura and the second petitioner, elder Ezekiel Kurunya, now claim that they face imminent threats of arrest by the Directorate of Criminal investigations and arraignment in a criminal court for false allegations of defamation brought against them by Pastor Njuguna, whom they also accuse of threatening them with unspecified consequences.

The petitioners are also accusing the respondents, led by the East Kenya Union Conference as well as the Central Kenya Conference, of shielding the actions of the pastor.

“…the respondents have continued to abuse their powers by protecting erring members of the SDA church who are their cronies instead of reprimanding them as per the provisions of the Church Manual and victimizing the voices of reason within the church,” adds court papers.

The petitioners now want the court to stop their impending arraignment and charging, further to quash the decision by one of the respondents to suspend one of the petitioners from employment.