Bishop who hosted Ruto during church chaos didn’t die of Covid

 

The African Independent Pentecostal Churches of Africa has dismissed claims that the cleric who hosted DP William Ruto during a service in Murang'a that turned chaotic died of Covid-19.

AIPCA Archbishop Julius Njoroge told the Star on Sunday that Bishop Rev Stephen Ng'ang’a died of stress, hypertension and pneumonia.

Ng'ang'a was buried on Friday in Kigumo constituency, Murang'a county amid rumours on social media that he had contracted Covid-19. 

Njoroge said a postmortem revealed that Ng'ang’a had for long been fighting stress, hypertension and pneumonia.

“Bishop Stephen Ng'ang’a has been sick for a long time but the recent incident at Kenol worsened his situation,” he said.

Two youths died in the fracas that broke out hours before Ruto arrived for the fundraiser. 

“The police officers threw a tear-gas canister at his feet and it exploded and having a record of battling hypertension and pneumonia, the smoke affected his health,” he said.

Njoroge further regretted that DP Ruto’s team did not attend the burial.

Archbishops who attended the burial included Frederick Wang'ombe and Samson Muthuri. Kigumo MP Wangari Mwaniki was also present.

The mass was conducted by Wang’ombe while Njoroge and Muthuri assisted.

The joint service was to show church members that they are united and are working as a unit.

Muthuri warned bloggers against tarnishing the reputation of the church. 

“We are now holding grassroots elections to unite church members and on November 27, 2020, the national board members will be elected and will be mandated to conduct and preside over the national polls,” he said.

Njoroge said the national board will amend the church constitution to amend contentious issues.