An American donor is crying foul after a Kenyan pastor allegedly swindled her Ksh 20 million from her in a bid to facilitate an orphanage in Isibania, Migori County.
The philanthropist known as Avis Goodheart is now appealing to the government to intervene and help her recover the said amount after she allegedly donated to an orphanage ran by a Kenyan pastor known as Esther Wambui.
According to Goodheart she believes the money has been misused despite dedicating her time and life proceeds to impact lives in Kenya and uplift the vulnerable in the community.
It is in this quest to change lives that she met a Kenyan pastor who convinced her about how good her mission was.
Goodheart immediately entered into a partnership deal with the pastor in 2018 but since then has been lying on the number of orphans she has been taking care of.
"I sent her money, lots of money, and one of my sponsors to buy a piece of property because she wanted more gardens. She told me during the Covid-19 pandemic that the neighbours were starving, and I sent her USD300 a week till the end of January this year," she stated.
Goodheart claims she has sent Wambui over 200,000 dollars in the last four years, which, she thought, was supporting 148 orphans. It was a lie, as she came to realise emerged that she only had 18 of them.
“Over the last 22 months I sent her lots of money, one of my sponsors gave her 18,000 dollars to buy her a car, that same week we sent 5,500 dollars to buy a piece of property," she added.
Defending the allegations labelled against her, the pastor Wambui insisted that everything she has done is required by law, further stating that she has all the documents supporting all the expenditures.
Wambui claims Goodheart who has donated only 7 million shillings to the organization, has assaulted her and wants the organization handed to another group.
She, however, noted that there is a scheme being hatched to take over the orphanage, though she has sacrificed everything to see the kids educated and have a life while living at the centre.
Now the only confidence Goodheart has is a court decision, which will resolve the dispute but put the lives of children in the orphanage at risk.
The matter has since, been reported to police and is headed to court.
