A pastor of a recently formed Kenyan Community Church in Lowell, MA., has filed a lawsuit against the overseers of his former church and demands close to a quarter Million dollars.
Dr. Rev. Karimi Mumbui has sued his former church, the Kenyan Community Presbyterian Church (PCEA Ushindi), for unpaid compensation for pastoral services offered between July 2011 to March 2014 totalling to $ 245,412.89 (about KSh 22 Million).
According to court documents filed at the Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn and obtained by Ajabu Africa News,(View complete lawsuit in PDF here), Dr. Mumbui also claims unspecified compensation for damages suffered due to breach of contract, “unfair and deceptive business practices and fraud perpetrated by the church during the said period of time.”
The suit names Arthur Chege and Benson Muchiri as defendants in their capacity as officers and agents of the church responsible for making payments.
“Plaintiff asks this Honorable Court to award the plaintiff the total of his unpaid compensation in the amount of 245,412.89 and further, not less than double and no more than triple of his actual damages for defendants deliberate unfair and deceptive business practices,” read the suit filed on Wednesday last week on behalf of Dr. Mumbui by Kamau & Baohene law firm of Worcester.
The complaint states that since March 2007 to March 2014, Ushindi church requested for and received services of Dr. Mumbui as a church minister and religious official.
However the pastor is only claiming compensation for the period between July 2011 to March 2014, in a move that suggests he had been paid since 2007 to July 2011 and is only seeking compensation for the rest of the unpaid period.
The clergyman accuses the church of having defrauded him for promising to pay for services offered only for them to fail to make payments, even after enjoying the pastoral services.
He alleges that failure to pay amounted to unfair and deceptive business practice that has made the Dr Mumbui suffer various injuries including financial hardships.
Before the lawsuit was filed last Thursday, Mumbui and Ushindi church were due at the Middlesex Superior court in Woburn for the hearing of the long pending dispute involving about $230, 000 in church funds that was transferred to the Presbytery of Northern New England (PNNE) for “safe keeping” when a dispute arose caused by accusations of sexual abuse of a young church parishioner by Dr. Mumbui.
As the church authority charged with oversight over PCEA Ushindi church, PNNE moved to investigate the allegations through PJC, a Presbyterian USA legal arm that works to settle disputes in the 2 million member denomination.
After a 14 hour marathon trial held on November 17, 2010 in Bedford New Hampshire, the church body found Mumbui guilty of 3 counts of sexual malfeasance, consequently moving to ban him from officiating church services at Ushindi for a period of time.
However, PNNE indicated that the pastor would be eligible for a full reinstatement if he underwent a recommended mandatory and rehabilitation course.
But after staying away from the church for several months, Mumbui returned to the pulpit at Ushindi on January 23, 2011 and conducted a service and preached in violation of the PJC’s set up procedure rehabilitation and reinstatement.
Shocked at the unexpected development, PNNE moved to permanently defrock Dr. Mumbui from conducting services at any PCUSA church in the USA.
It was at this time that PNNE decided to transfer the $230,000 in church development funds from the Ushindi church bank account to PNNE’s account.
Following the move, Dr. Mumbui moved to sue PNNE, claiming PNNE did not have any authority to defrock him and demanding the returning of the funds.
In February this year, Judge Joseph M. Walker III of the Middlesex Superior court ruled in favor of PNNE, indicating that there was enough evidence to show that Ushindi church had been indeed an affiliate member of PNNE since 2005 and thus subject to it’s oversight authority provided for under the US Constitution.
In the ruling, the judge noted that PNNE had the right to defrock Dr. Mumbui in line with the laid up disciplinary procedures by the church body, further stating that the convictions meted on Dr. Mumbui by PJC still stands to this day.(Read the full ruling here)
However, the funds issue was left pending and was to be decided on last week.
Stung by the ruling, Dr. Mumbui left Ushindi church two weeks later together with more than 300 of his followers to set up the new PCEA Neema church.
“Unfortunately, Judge Joseph Walker passed away in his sleep back in July this year, forcing the new judge assigned to take up the case to ask for postponement to give him time to review the information on the case,” said Wilson Wachira, former Ushindi church treasurer who spoke to AjabuAfrica.com.
It was on the same day last week that the new judge decided to postpone the ruling that the new lawsuit was filed demanding damages arising from the alleged unpaid services popped up.
However, since the period that Dr. Mumbui is claiming payments for included the time he had been defrocked (July 2011 to March 2014), it remains to be seen how the legal process will pan out regarding the claimed damages close to quarter of a million dollars.
Interestingly, when Mumbui moved with the bulk of the former Ushindi church members to form the Neema church, the two defendants named in the suit as having defrauded the pastor (Benson Muchiri and Arthur Chege), followed suit, throwing an intriguing spanner in the works as Dr. Mumbui seems to be suing members of his current Neema church.
Efforts to reach the defendants for comment have not yielded fruits.
A scheduling order to keep track of the litigation at the Superior court in Woburn sets the date of August 11, 2016 as the final deadline when the case should be resolved by and judgment issued.
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