Mugithi ringtone gets Church elder into trouble

An elder at a local church in Naivasha has been suspended after his phone rang with a lewd ringtone in the middle of a sermon last Sunday.

The elder’s phone, which is said to have been in the inner pocket of his tightly buttoned coat, led to a prolonged disruption before he could reach it.

“He disrupted the sermon for a considerably long time as he struggled to reach for his ringing phone,” said one member of the congregation.

Innuendo

Those present said the discordant ringtone consisted of sexual innuendos, which left most of them heads bent with embarrassment due to the presence of children.

“It is understandable that at times one might forget to switch off their mobile phones during a church service but all the same, Mugithi ringtones are unacceptable in the church,” said a senior pastor.

The Mugithi ringtone the pastor was referring to, is a corruption of secular Kikuyu compositions whereby some of the words in the original compositions are substituted with sexual expletives.

“It is shameful, especially in the house of the Lord,” added the shocked pastor.

It also turned out that the said elder’s integrity has been questioned in the recent past, but the church had not received any concrete evidence about the negative things mentioned about him.

“We have been receiving complaints about his conduct from church members, but owing to insufficient evidence, we have been dismissing the claims,” said a church elder.

According to the senior elder, on one or two occasions, they had been informed that the elder had been spending nights at two widows’ homes in the village.

Ploy

“He disputed the claims vehemently when we brought them to his attention, terming them a ploy by his enemies to tarnish his name,” the senior elder quipped.

“You can tell a man by the kind of a lifestyle he lives,” a female churchgoer said. “If Mugithi is the kind of music he listens to, there must be some truth to the allegations regarding his questionable conduct,” she added.

Among those present at the Sunday service was his wife who stealthily walked out of the church at the turn of events.

“I was not surprised to see her leave because she has always covered up for him, but not this time,” said another church member.

In mitigation, the beleaguered elder blamed one of his sons for the scandal saying that he was the one who profiled the ringtone without his knowledge, a claim that was scoffed at by those present.

After a short meeting, elders declared the errant elder suspended until further deliberations are made to decide the way forward for his cleansing.

“Such characters have been the cause of dissipating confidence in the church among non-church-goers,” said the senior elder adding that the common saying ‘do what I say not what I do’ does not apply in religious practices.