Bishop Francis Mugweru of Joy Springs Soul-winning Worship Centre in Juja, Kiambu County has been murdered.

Mugweru’s mutilated body was found 300 meters from his Kiganjo home on Friday morning (July 10).

The clergyman, 62, was allegedly accosted by unknown men on Thursday night and assaulted to death.

Police say Mugweru’s ear had been chopped off, his finger severed from his hand and his skull crushed.

The bishop’s body was taken to a Kiambu hospital morgue. Police have commenced investigations into his death.

The deceased’s family spokesperson, Samuel Njuguna Kaigunye, has urged authorities to expedite the investigations and arrest Mugweru’s killers.

Love drama

Bishop Mugweru hogged media headlines in August 2019, when he allegedly snatched his congregant’s wife and five children.

The bishop said -- at the time -- that he was not going to let go of “a loving, humble and understanding wife who has given him the peace that he yearned for years”.

Mugweru said he had already ditched his wife and was on the verge of formalising another union with his then-new catch, Leah Wambui.

“I am not ready for any reconciliation with my former wife. My decision to ditch her was final and I am forging forward with my preparations to formalise my new marriage,” the man of the cloth told People Daily.

Mugweru shocked faithful and residents alike when he took off with the wife and five children of John Kanyua, a church member he supported spiritually during his youth — and even officiated their marriage.

The cleric, who separated with his wife Agnes Wangivi, 51, in 2013 after she allegedly threatened to kill him said he was a happy man, adding his former wife with whom he had three adult children, was “unfaithful”.

He accused Wangivi of selling their vehicle and several cows, and using the proceeds to allegedly “further her adulterous escapades”.

Quit marriage

“She started by luring one of my former house-boys into a love affair before she opened up to other men. I decided to quit the marriage but carried nothing with me from the house. I separated with her at Juja Police Station after she threatened to kill me. I left my house to go find peace and I will never return there,” he said.

Wangivi, who still resides in the mansion that the two built together, said the bishop was not picking her calls or that of his children. “One of the grandsons is unwell but the bishop no longer picks our calls. He has cut all our communication,” she said.

Kanyua, 48, was in disbelief over how the man of God who supported them spiritually during their young days and even signed their marriage certificate in March of 2013, could detach him from his family.

He said he and Wambui had children before they held a colourful wedding. He remembered how he spent thousands of shillings on the fancy ceremony. “The bishop started preying on my wife even before we formalised our marriage. We had children before we did a formal wedding,” he said.

Look for another lover

The bishop then fronted Wambui to become an assistant pastor at the church, despite having dropped out of school in Class Six, after which she started getting home late leading to frequent marital rows.

But the bishop said Kanyua divorced Wambui in 2014 and that he (Kanyua) stopped providing for his five children.

“Instead of him sitting there mourning all day, let him look for another wife who can take care of him. Our train has already left the station, and there is no turning back,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Mathew Ndung'u)