- Ashford Kimani questions why ordinary PCEA members should shoulder the financial burden associated with Milele Beach Hotel.
- He argues that transparency and accountability should precede demands for additional financial sacrifice from congregants.
- Church leaders, he says, must explain how the debt arose and present a credible recovery strategy.
There is a difficult question that deserves an honest and transparent answer: If Milele Beach Hotel has accumulated a debt of about Sh700 million, how does that become the problem of ordinary PCEA congregants who are already struggling to make ends meet?
This is not merely a question about money. It is a question about leadership, accountability, governance, stewardship and justice.
For many ordinary members of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), church giving is already a sacrifice. Congregants contribute from salaries that are stretched by food prices, school fees, rent, transport costs, medical expenses and an increasingly difficult economic environment. Some worshippers give their offerings and tithes faithfully despite having very little left at the end of the month.
It is therefore understandable when ordinary members ask why they should be expected to carry the consequences of a commercial investment that they neither negotiated nor managed.
A church is certainly entitled to invest. In fact, responsible investment can strengthen an institution and provide resources for ministry, education, social programmes and other activities. There is nothing inherently wrong with a church owning or operating a hotel.
The problem arises when an investment accumulates enormous liabilities and the proposed solution is to ask the ordinary faithful to dig deeper. That is where the question of accountability becomes unavoidable.
If Milele Beach Hotel has indeed accumulated debt running into hundreds of millions of shillings, the first responsibility should rest with those who made, approved, supervised or failed to correct the decisions that produced that financial situation. Leadership is not only about enjoying the prestige associated with office when things are going well. Leadership also means accepting responsibility when things go wrong.
When a business succeeds, those who made strategic decisions are often praised for their vision. When it fails, the same principle should apply: those entrusted with oversight must explain what happened.
Were proper feasibility studies conducted before major investments were made? Were the projected revenues realistic? Was the hotel professionally managed? Were there adequate financial controls? Were warning signs identified and ignored? Were loans taken on terms that the business could realistically service? Were independent audits conducted and acted upon?
These are not malicious questions. They are legitimate governance questions, especially when ordinary members are subsequently being asked to help shoulder the financial consequences.
Accountability before sacrifice
A debt of about Sh700 million cannot simply be transformed into a spiritual obligation for ordinary worshippers without a comprehensive explanation of how the debt arose and what measures have been taken to prevent further losses.
There is also an important distinction between church giving and investment financing. Congregants give to support the mission of the Church. They contribute towards evangelism, pastoral work, education, community programmes, construction and other legitimate ministry activities.
They should not automatically become the financial shock absorbers for every failed or underperforming commercial venture. If an investment was intended to generate income for the Church, then the investment should, as far as possible, carry responsibility for its own financial performance.
This does not mean congregants should never support a struggling church institution. Churches are communities, and members routinely rally around institutions in times of crisis. But such support should be based on truth, transparency and informed consent, not guilt, fear or pressure.
There is a particularly dangerous principle that institutions must avoid: privatising benefits while socialising losses. If certain individuals or departments enjoyed the authority, influence or benefits associated with investment decisions, they cannot simply transfer the consequences of those decisions to ordinary people when the investment encounters difficulties.
The ordinary congregant should not be treated as an endless source of emergency financing.
Explore institutional solutions
Before asking worshippers for additional money, leadership should demonstrate that every reasonable institutional solution has been explored. That includes restructuring the debt, renegotiating loan terms, bringing in competent hospitality professionals, disposing of non-performing assets, leasing the property, finding strategic investors, restructuring ownership or, if necessary, selling the property.
Selling an asset is not necessarily a sign of failure. Sometimes responsible leadership means recognising that an investment is no longer viable and cutting losses before they become catastrophic.
There is a dangerous temptation in institutions to keep throwing money at a failing project simply because too much money has already been invested in it. The fact that millions have already been spent should not become an excuse for committing even more resources without a convincing recovery strategy.
The critical question should therefore be: What option best protects the Church and its members from greater losses going forward?
If an independent financial assessment establishes that Milele Beach Hotel can become profitable under a credible restructuring plan, then that plan should be clearly presented to the appropriate stakeholders. Congregants deserve to know the strategy, the timelines, the expected returns and the safeguards against repeating past mistakes.
But if the numbers demonstrate that the business is fundamentally unsustainable, leadership should have the courage to consider alternatives, including disposal or leasing of the property.
Transparency must come first
Most importantly, there should be full financial transparency.
Church members should not have to rely on rumours, social media posts or fragmented information to understand the financial position of an institution they are being asked to support. Audited accounts, debt structures, asset values and recovery strategies should be communicated through proper institutional channels.
Faith does not eliminate the need for accountability. In fact, stewardship is deeply connected to accountability. Resources entrusted to leaders are not personal possessions. They belong to the institution and are entrusted for a purpose.
The ordinary PCEA congregant deserves respect. The farmer, teacher, small business owner, civil servant, pensioner and unemployed young person who puts a few coins or hundreds of shillings into the offering basket is making a sacrifice.
Many families are already struggling with the rising cost of living. Asking such people to repeatedly contribute more to rescue a commercial enterprise requires an exceptionally strong justification. They should never be made to feel that their faith requires them to finance decisions they had no role in making.
If the investment succeeds, let the Church benefit. If it fails, let those responsible for its governance confront the failure honestly.
The answer to institutional debt should not automatically be another appeal to the already burdened worshipper.
Sometimes the most faithful form of stewardship is not raising more money.
Sometimes it is asking difficult questions, accepting responsibility, cutting losses, restructuring wisely and having the courage to let go of what is no longer financially sustainable.
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The Church should protect both its mission and its people, and accountability must begin at the top before sacrifice is demanded from the bottom.
By Ashford Kimani
Ashford is a teacher of English and Literature and writes about education and social affairs.
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