At least 50 Seventh-Day Adventist churches in Kisii’s Gosere area in South Mugirango have abandoned mainstream church leadership in favor of the divisive Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference (NCC).
Church Elders who spoke to journalists at Ikoba in Tabaka said the decision to replace the church’s formally recognized South Kenya Conference leadership was motivated by the conference’s failure to address issues affecting them.
The journey with South Kenya Conference was described as ‘windy and torturous.’
Alloys Mokono, chairman of the church elders, stated that the Gosere SDA Churches had patiently endured SKC’s ill treatment for more than four years.
“We have soldiered on amid the trails but today we have made a united decision that is time to move on to where we can find rest which is the Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference,” he said.
The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists filed a lawsuit against the Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference in 2019 over the use of the Adventist name, trademark, and logo.
The global church leadership requested that NCC be barred from operating as a religious entity by the High Court. The GC claimed that NCC was incorporated as a private company.
According to the GC, only the Adventist denomination possessed exclusive rights to the name Seventh-day Adventist.
The NCC was formed in 2015 as a result of a leadership dispute between two factions at the Central Kenya Conference.
On Saturday, however, the elders of Gosere stated that their decision to join the NCC had not rendered them non-Seventh-day Adventists.
“We what to tell the world that we are still loyal members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and we dispel the false narratives being spread that we have ditched the faith,” Mokono said.
The elders warned South Kenya conference leaders to stop using the authorities to attack them.
“We acquired the land legally and we built the churches without your input, we own them and it shall remain so,” Mokono added.
The move by churches in Kisii is the first after others from Transmara region also jumped ship.
