Man of God James Maina Ng’ang’ a is on the spotlight yet again for being in the middle of another controversy.
It is alleged that a branch of his church grabbed a piece of land belonging to an elderly woman. According to reports, Neno Evangelism Centre’s Bulbul branch in Ngong, Kajiado County, has defied orders issued by the National Land Commission (NLC) and the County Lands Board asking the church to vacate the land belonging to Ms Susan Ngina Kanyila whom both agencies have said owns the land.
In 2013, the church, through Mr Joseph Muriithi Mborothi, illegally encroached on the woman’s land and started building a church structure.
This was during the tenure of former NLC chairman Mohammed Swazuri and Lands minister Charity Ngilu, who is now the Kitui County governor.
Ms Ngina has accused Neno Evangelism Centre of subdividing her quarter-acre piece of land and building a church where services continue despite the NLC declaring that the land belongs to her.
She wants the church to vacate the land. The woman is among many other residents who were given pieces of land as squatters by the government in the 1970s after living in the area as landless citizens.
She was however shocked when a group of people invaded her land in 2013 and started building the church notwithstanding that she has lived on the land since 1976.
Following a County Lands Board meeting to discuss the land ownership dispute following a letter from National Land Commission in January 2016, the board wrote a letter to Neno Evangelism Centre asking it to restrain from continuation of any development at the property that is now at the centre of a raging controversy between the church and the elderly woman.
Ms Ngina, however, says the church has never stopped developing the land. She has also accused her neighbour, county lands boss Joseph Muriithi Mborothi, who also owns a piece of land in the area, of encroaching on the land and conspiring with the Neno Evangelism Centre to rob her of her land.
Ms Ngina now says that she fears for her life, claiming that strangers with unknown intentions have been trespassing into the land.
She also accused the area chief of working behind the scenes with the church to see her lose the land.
After the church refused to move out of the land, Ms Ngina forwarded a petition at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
Pastor Ng’ang’a’s image and that of his church has been tainted for the past couple of years following a series of nasty car accidents as well as foul outbursts in church.
