A clergyman who eloped with a married woman last year has been murdered.
The body of Francis Mugweru, the bishop of Joyspring Soul Winning Worship church, was found in a thicket 300 metres from his Kiganjo home in Thika sub-county last Friday.
The 62-year-old Mugweru hit the headlines in August last year for snatching the wife and three children of one of his followers.
He is said to have been dragged from his home on Thursday night and clobbered to death. The body had deep cuts and the head was hit with a blunt object.
Joyspring Soul Winning Worship church is in Juja Farm.
“We want justice for our slain brother, father and spiritual leader. Police should leave no stone unturned until they apprehend the assassins,” his brother Samuel Njuguna told journalists.
“I saw the body on my to work in Thika town but I did not recognise him. An hour later, I was called by neighbours who told me that he had been murdered."
According to Njuguna, the killing was a well-planned assassination as his killers stole nothing from the bishop.
At Joy Spring Worship Church, worshippers led by the Rev Lincoln Mwaniki, described the pioneer of evangelical churches in Juja as a calm and loving man.
“He was a kind man who related well with people. That is why he managed to establish evangelical churches in Juja and other regions,” Mwaniki said and called on the authorities to bring the killers to book.
Mugweru and his wife Agnes Wangivi separated in 2013 after 34 years of marriage. They have three children.
He rented a house in the neighbourhood for the woman he took away from the husband. She is a mother of five, but two of the children were left with the father.
Apparently, it was Mugweru who officiated during the marriage of the woman he eloped with. His signature is on the marriage certificate.
The bishop accused his wife of infidelity and threatening to kill him at the time he announced he had found solace and peace in his new partner.
“She sold our vehicle and several cows and used the money to advance her adulterous escapades. I have also been living in fear in my own home because she threatened to kill me,” Mugweru alleged.
His body was taken to General Kago Funeral Home in Thika.
- mwaniki fm
