Dagoretti Member of Parliament Simba Arati has spoken out after a Catholic Church refunded him the money he donated on Sunday.
The Kisii Catholic Church, where Arati attended mass on Sunday November 28, said it returned the Kshs100,000 that the lawmaker had contributed after he walked out of church because of being denied an opportunity to address congregants.
A senior priest at the church said that the money was refunded because the church cannot tolerate disrespect from politicians.
According to Kisii County Catholic Bishop Joseph Mairura, he was offended by a politician who wanted to disrupt the program of the mass that was being officiated by Pope’s representative in Kenya Herbertus Van Megen.
Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula and Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa who had attended mass were however given a chance to speak.
The MP has denied receiving the full amount of money that he contributed to the church while terming the incident as unfortunate.
According to the Nation, Arati claimed to have donated more than Kshs100,000 by funding contributions of some leaders who were present at the church.
“I gave out money to several leaders in the church. Why then are they claiming to have returned part of the money? Why are they not returning the rest, which amounts to more than Sh300,000,” Arati said.
He said that it was wrong for the church to play politics while accusing a section of Gusii politicians of using church leaders to frustrate their opponents.
According to Arati, a commotion occurred in the Nyamagwa Catholic Parish and he only walked out after being asked to do so one of the priests
“Yes, a problem occurred and there was shouting in the church between supporters of various politicians when I got in. I do not understand why the shouting occurred yet I had been invited to the church by the priests. That is my home constituency,” he said.
Adding that,“When the noise persisted, I was requested by one of the priests to step out to allow for normalcy to return. But a section of the faithful followed me out and demanded that I address them. But I declined.”
Arati who has expressed interest in the Kisii gubernatorial seat in the next general election said that he decided to go for the seat following requests from locals.
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