US Televangelist Benny Hinn denies any knowledge of the Finger of God International Ministry. Photo/BBC

By Grace Kerongo

Nairobi — US televangelist Benny Hinn has denied any knowledge of the controversial Finger of God church in Runda which KTN former presenter Esther Arunga joined recently.

“Benny Hinn has been my spiritual leader since 1996,” said embattled church leader and saxophone player Joseph Hellon on Wednesday.

Yesterday at a press conference at the Runda house, Hellon went on to declare that he will be standing for President in 2012 with Esther as his running mate.

Controversial emails have been circulating that were allegedly exchanged between Pastor Hinn and Hellon.

The emails purport to be from Benny Hinn instructing Hellon what to do on a daily basis. The emails purportedly from Benny Hinn instructed Hellon to break up Esther Arunga’s engagement to her fiancé Wilson Malaba in favour of Quincy Timberlake Wambita Zuma who is reportedly now her lover.

The Star contacted the Benny Hinn Ministries to enquire if the emails were genuine.

“Firstly, the email address is not Pastor Benny Hinn’s and secondly Pastor Benny, if you have listened to any of our programs, would never give advice as suggested in the emails. So the information that you are in possession of are untrue,” Hinn’s handlers responded.

On Wednesday, Hellon told the Star that a personal assistant whom he recently fired used his passwords to print out the emails to be used against him in a “hate campaign” by disbarred members of his church.

“I know about those emails, they are with my lawyers now,” he said.

“Those emails are junk mail. It is unfortunate that the name of someone of Benny Hinn’s stature can be brought up in junk mail,” he told the press conference yesterday.

The press conference was organised by David Makali whose Sound Africa company recently gave Hellon a recording contract.

At the end of the press conference Hellon announced that in 2012 he would be running for president with Esther Arunga as his running mate.

One of the “junk” emails from “Hinn” dated February 11 has a similar prophesy.

“I can see in 2011-12 season you becoming nominated as an MP, out of your music tour globally as there’s a neighbouring minister who already hates you for that announcement from the PM Raila camp,” the email states.

Another email from “Hinn” on the same day addressed to Hellon states: “I see Esther becoming a prominent personality in government. This is what the parents hate to learn since they think that Esther will never value them seriously anymore.” Yesterday Hellon vehemently defended the integrity of his Finger of God church.

“Before we were registered the CID vetted us for five years to see if we are worthy of the licence,” he said. He denied the church was a cult.

“A cult is a secret organisation where people meet in an inaccessible place but we meet in public places. We follow the Bible and have been in operation for three years. The membership has grown significantly and now we have 600 members,” he said.

Church members take communion (including wine, bread and salt) twice a day. Hellon was reluctant to comment on the practice saying, “I will not get into details of the dogmatic practices of the church. If you would like to know, come and register.” The newly registered members of the church go through Bible school up to the certificate level, after which they are eligible for baptism by Apostle Hellon.”

He also defended the composition of his church members. “I have a lot of media and entertainment people coming to the church because I deal with them daily,” he said.

Cabinet minister Njeru Githae who lives next door complained about the monthly Starry Jazz nights.

The minister said, “Hellon, his wife, Esther Arunga and Wanja Gachogu were very instrumental in themed monthly Jazz Nights that were done the last Thursday of every month. Attendance was by invitation by the four of them. I attended the ones for August, September, October and November last year and stopped. Each Jazz night had different themes like, red and black, blue and pink, white and gold.

“I attended the nights from around 8pm till 11pm because on Fridays I had to be in the office. I don’t know what times they ended and what happened. For the times I attended, it was purely music, food, water and wine only. The crowd was very elegant and Nairobi’s uppity. They were mainly TV anchors, musicians, models and professionals. At no time was I asked to attend their church services. Maybe they have a game plan and they had their own timings of recruitment.”

Hellon defended the use of alcohol quoting Ephesians 5:18: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit”.

Esther Arunga criticised the journalists’ focus on her life as “baying for blood”. She threatened to sue three media houses and calling for the firing of the Star journalist Grace Kerongo who broke the story.

Esther denied rumours that she is pregnant.

On why she quit her job at KTN, she said, “I had asked for a two weeks leave during the break-up with Wilson. I then went back and resigned for a number of reasons including not being paid enough.” This is the second time that the TV personality has broken off an engagement.

Hellon said he stopped the upcoming nuptial between Arunga and her fiancé because “Wilson’s conduct was contrary to the church’s beliefs. He wasn’t even a registered member.”

Arunga explained, “I broke off the engagement when two girls from the church said he was making sexual passes at them. He also took my logbook to get loans from illegal financiers. He has 15 logbooks (of other people) including mine.”

But Wilson Malaba retorted, “This is turning out to be a fiasco. I have been single since 2007. If I was planning to have an affair I would do so then not when I know I’m about to be married.”

On the loan sharks and Arunga’s log book, he said, “I’m planning to hold a press conference and bring along the documentation for the loan she is talking about and she will know when she will get her car back. The person who offered the loan is a friend of mine and he only offers them to close friends only.”

–The Nairobi Star

Raila Odinga, Kenya's Prime Minister

Nairobi — DID Prime Minister Raila Odinga and some of his ODM colleagues start plotting long to paralyse the government?

Or did the overturned suspension of Agriculture minister William Ruto and Education minister Sam Ongeri last Sunday unexpectedly precipitate a crisis in the coalition?

Raila wrote the African Union on February 8 requesting the return of Chief Mediator Kofi Annan to Kenya because the failure to tackle corruption could lead to “a complete paralysis in government”. That was a full six days before the fateful suspension.

But three months ago, when Annan was in Kenya in November, the PM verbally complained that President Kibaki had refused his request to reshuffle ministers.

“Dr Annan confirmed that he had raised the issue with President Kibaki who promised to have the changes made early in January,” said a source in Raila’s office.

Raila reportedly wanted a mini reshuffle with Ruto demoted to a junior ministry and Sports minister Hellen Sambili sacked.

Yesterday Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo, a close confidant of Raila’s, insisted that Kibaki had refused Raila’s request to reshuffle the Cabinet.

Agriculture minister Ruto issued a statement yesterday saying there was no crisis in government “except that which had been orchestrated by a few individuals which exists in their scheme”.

“These leaders should not be allowed to create despair in the country through orchestrated disputes, fermented paralysis or engineered confusion and Kenyans should treat their schemes with the contempt it deserves,” said Ruto.

He said the escalation of hostilities was linked to ODM’s changed position on the Naivasha draft and “the crisis has been orchestrated to derail efforts to have a new constitution”.

The PNU supporters are claiming that Raila plotted long ago to cause a crisis within the Cabinet to shift attention from the maize scandal to power sharing and the National Accord.

Last night ODM secretary general Anyang Nyong’o dismissed claims by PNU that the crisis was manufactured.

“PNU is crazy and illogical. They argue with their bellies and not their heads,” said Nyong’o.

The ODM chief whip Jakoyo Midiwo also denied that Raila planned the crisis and instead accused the PNU side of disrespect.

“To say that we planned the crisis is utter rubbish,” said Midiwo.

To prove its conspiracy theory, PNU has questioned why Raila wrote to the AU on February 8 predicting a breakdown in government well before he purported to suspend Ruto and Ongeri last Sunday.

“There exists a serious dispute between the parties with regard to the functioning of the cabinet. The parties are unable to agree on how to tackle cases of corruption affecting the government as a whole and some ministers. There may soon be a complete paralysis of the government,” Raila wrote in his letter.

After upsetting the Kenyan political cart, Raila flew out to Japan on Sunday evening. On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi announced that the PM was officially declaring there was a crisis in the Cabinet and that the ODM wanted Annan back for mediation.

When asked by reporters if ODM had officially written to the AU, Musalia did not mention Raila’s letter but said the party was in the process of writing a formal letter to AU.

The PNU operatives claim that Raila elaborately stage-managed the whole scenario.

They claimed that Raila was next in the firing line as he chaired the Cabinet Ad Hoc committee that handled the importation and distribution of subsidised maize in 2008 when Kenya was suffering a serious food deficit.

“The grandstanding and fomenting of a crisis is a well organised plan that started three weeks ago. Indeed, we are aware that Kofi Annan was invited to come to Kenya to settle a dispute, way before there was any dispute,” said Kibaki’s adviser on constitution and coalition affairs Prof Kivutha Kibwana.

However the conspiracy theory is undermined by the fact that Raila first publicly recommended on February 5 that Ongeri and his PS Karega Mutahi step down in the presence of President Kibaki at KIA. That was three days before he wrote to the AU.

And the idea that Raila wanted a crisis is further undermined by his statement on February 12 when he chaired a National Economic Social Council meeting in Naivasha whose participants included Mudavadi, Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, and business people from the private sector. He told them to forget about politics and build Kenya’s economy.

“He was very categorical that the government needed to work together to realize Vision 2030. The two health ministers Anyang Nyong’o and Beth Mugo made presentations and were even calling each other by their first names. There was no indication whatsoever that ODM and PNU had issues,” said a senior government official who attended the Naivasha meeting.

That was the day before his PS Isahakia and Secretary Caroli Omondi resigned, prompting President Kibaki to formally suspend them along with three other PSs and top NCPB officials. At that stage, it looked like the two principals had finally come together to fight corruption.

On Sunday February 14, the day after, Raila announced he was suspending Ongeri and Ruto. Kibaki overturned that order and it then looked like the two principals had finally split on corruption.

But the PNU still insists that it is all a plot by Raila.

“Instead of the country focusing on the maize scandal and other pressing national issues, the Prime Minister’s advisers want to take the country back to an interpretation of the National Accord,” he said.

“Kenyans should not accept to be derailed from the ongoing constitutional review, which is the most important agenda now.” “What is the Prime Minister’s office really up to? What are they really covering up?” asked Kibwana.

PNU coalition spokesman Moses Kuria claimed his party has “credible information that the Prime Minister is planning to quit the coalition government immediately he returns from his overseas trip.”

-The Nairobi Star