The self-proclaimed prophet David Owuor has been under sharp criticism over the source of his flashy lifestyle and wealth.
The man of the collar who quited his job 2003 to concentrate on preaching is embroiled in a vicious tussle with a family over the control and occupancy of a Sh1.5 billion property in Westlands, Nairobi.
The family has accused the controversial ‘mightiest prophet’ and his Repentance and Holiness Ministry of forcefully seizing the multi-storeyed apartments along upscale Rhapta Road in Westlands and the leafy suburb of Riverside Drive.
Yesterday relatives of a woman claiming ownership of the property said the prophet had dispossessed her through an elaborate scheme initiated in 2005.
They accused the controversial prophet of continuing to pocket millions of shillings in monthly rent from the upscale apartments in what could lift the lid on the financing of Owuor’s flashy ministry.
At the heart of the dispute is a claim that the prophet and senior bishops in his church coerced the woman, identified as Jayne Muthoni, to appoint Owuor’s follower, Lilly Njage, as a co-director in Shaba Investment Limited, the registered owner of the flats.
To wrest the control of the multi-million-shilling property from Owuor, Muthoni’s relatives alleged that their relative was not of sound mind when she authorised Njage to manage her property.
They claimed the woman had been brainwashed and placed under the influence of unidentified drugs that could have caused memory loss.
“We want my sister’s property taken back to her. They forced her to appoint a co-director so that they can take control of the company. They have stolen from her. There is one transaction which I saw and more than Sh700 million was withdrawn from her bank account,” Muthoni’s brother Duncan Njagi said yesterday.
Njagi, who led other family members in storming the building to reclaim ownership, alleged that Owuor also moved into their sister’s palatial home along Riverside Drive and turned it into his private office and nerve centre for his church operations.
The home compound contains a swimming pool in which Owuor ‘dipped’ Raila in 2009. It is claimed that the Riverside home was at one point owned by former Internal Security minister Geoge Saitoti.
The brother revealed that the prophet moved out of the Riverside Drive residence hurriedly a few days ago after the family asked for the return of their sister’s property.
Another propert Dove Court Apartments in Westlands was also taken over by the church and some rooms turned into bishops’ offices, the family claimed.
Njagi alleged that other rooms at the Dove Court Apartments were rented out and the money generated was used to finance the prophet’s lavish lifestyle.
But Owuor and the church, through lawyer Kimani Watenga, denied there was a plot to deceive Muthoni to surrender her property to the flamboyant prophet who has courted controversy in the past through his contentious prophesies.
In 2005 Owuor claimed that his god had told him that a massive earthquake was going to flatten Nairobi. Nothing happened.
He said that Muthoni “voluntarily” appointment Njage, a close friend and church colleague, to help her run the property after she developed “memory problems”.
“The least the family can do to Macharia and the church is to thank them because not a single property in Njage’s name or any other has been transferred to the church,” Watenga said.
Speaking outside her apartment yesterday, Muthoni said she had been defrauded of her property but her relatives whisked her away before she could elaborate.
Alice Macharia, Muthoni’s sister, claimed that a scheme by the church to make Macharia a pauper was choreographed back in 2004 when her sister was ‘forced’ to close down her firm to ‘serve the Lord.’
A year later, she was coerced to appoint Macharia to run the property on grounds that she was unwell, she said.
“We don’t think the memory lapse they are talking about is natural. We believe our sister was forced to take some drugs that made her lose her memory. We are questioning why the church should ask her to appoint another, whom she is not related to, to manage her property,” Macharia said.
She claimed that Muthoni was never allowed to leave her room and was kept indoors for long periods, at times more than three days. This, she claimed, caused mental torture to their sister, leading to memory loss.
“Initially, I am a person who was helping my sister run the property. But these people chased me away and every time, I come to visit, I am stopped at the gate. Sometimes, I camp there for eight hours and go I back without seeing her,” Njagi said.
She said Muthoni was blocked from visiting their sick mother at Karen Hospital. Their mother, Charity Njagi, passed on February 17, but Muthoni only knew about the death three days later.
“We are angered because we are just from burying our mother. We tried to call Jayne to be with us in the burial arrangement but people in this ministry led by Owuor could not give her time,” Njagi said.
He claimed that Muthoni was harassed, sometimes beaten by church members. “They used to hide her in a room so that she could be away from her people. We were totally unable to reach her,” he said.
But lawyer Watenga said that Muthoni closed down her law firm and devoted herself to the Lord after Owuor healed her son’s dyslexia.
“When Muthoni requested prayers and her son was healed from the complicated problem, she decided to retire from practising as a lawyer and so serve God,” the lawyer said.
Njage, who has been running the properties since 2005 and has been living in one of the rooms at the Dove apartments since then, said that Muthoni appointed her to help manage the property.
This took place, she said, after the Bank of Africa, where Muthoni banked, raised concerns about ‘huge withdrawals’ made from the account.
“She could not remember. She had an accountant who claimed Muthoni owed her Sh78 million. So she was just signing for the withdrawal,” she said.
Njage was appointed and made a signatory to the bank. She claimed she has never withdrawn any money, other than that used to pay the salaries of those working at the apartments.
She said that she had been keeping all the documents, including logbooks of the SUV cars owned by Muthoni and title deeds, and none of them has been transferred to either the church or herself.