Relief for JCC Church as land suit withdrawn (Mombasa)

Bishop Wilfred Lai of Jesus Celebration Centre has breathed a sigh of relief after a lawsuit challenging his Sh1.2 billion property in Bamburi, Mombasa, was withdrawn.

The suit that was filed by squatters was withdrawn after it emerged that unknown people might have forged signatures and documents used in filing the case. Mr Aron Odindiko, an advocate who purportedly represented the squatters, has distanced himself from the litigants, saying the squatters’ pleadings never originated from his law firm and hence were not properly filed in court.

According to Litigation Counsel Emmanuel Makuto, there are no squatters in the said plot.

“If you go to the ground, the squatters don’t exist. We want the police to investigate the matter because there is an element of fraud that might have taken place resulting into the filing of the case,” he said after the case was withdrawn.

According to the case, the squatters had accused the Bishop Lai’s Jesus Celebration Centre of encroaching into their property and asked the court to compel the church to surrender the plots to them.

The squatters had alleged that the church had taken part of their properties that had not been sold to it.

The complainants stated that they were only interested in getting back whatever the church did not purchase.

But the church, which is one of the biggest in Mombasa, had debunked the squatters claim, stating that it purchased the property more than 20 years ago and put an investment of more than Sh1.2 billion.

With the court case now withdrawn, the police are now investigating circumstances leading to the filing of the case after the squatters’ advocate distanced himself from the suit.