'Blood, tears and nakedness': Wrangles rock Quaker church as congregants locked out

Leadership wrangles at the Friends Church (Quakers) under the Nairobi Yearly Meeting (NYM) have escalated into a bitter dispute over governance, financial control, and local congregations' autonomy, leaving one of its prominent churches closed for eight months. The dispute at Friends International Centre (FIC), the NYM headquarters meeting along Ngong Road in Nairobi, has pitted the church secretariat against local leaders and congregants, with the two sides trading accusations of constitutional violations, abuse of power and mismanagement. The Standard has established that at the centre of the dispute is a long-running disagreement over whether FIC has the authority to recruit and pay its pastors directly or whether all clergy should be employed and managed by the NYM secretariat. When The Standard visited FIC during a normal Sunday service, the church remained closed and was guarded by armed police officers.