A splinter group at the St Maxwell Nairobi Central Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church has laid bare the bone of contention behind the two warring groups.

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The church has been experiencing in fightings that led to Nairobi police bosses opting to close it off on Saturday until the warring parties reach a consensus and end the wrangles.

Led by Sammy Masara, a church elder, the group on Wednesday placed the sale of a Sh200 million piece of land as the reason behind the fights, claiming that the other group wants to sell it off fraudulently.

He said that the fights only intensified after the Central Kenya Conference (CKC), two weeks ago, expelled 15 members who were preventing the sale, accusing them of causing trouble.

"The purpose of removing a member from the church register is supposed to be redemptive rather than condemnatory. The leaders were shy to come out and say those they want to remove from the church register highlighted and even stopped fraudulent activities within the church,” he said in a press conference in Nairobi, accompanied by his allies.

"A good example is the intended sale of a prime church property worth Sh200 million in Kileleshwa, which was forestalled and eventually the sale cancelled," he added.

He claimed that the church owns parcels of land across the city, Ukambani, Central Kenya and the Coast, adding that the conference has further introduced bias into the church.

“Further, these leaders have created 13 administrative stations in the friendly Mount Kenya and Ukambani regions with a total membership of 37,000 while they have given Nairobi and Kajiado with over 82,000 just three stations,”  he added.

Mr Masara declared himself the caretaker of the newly formed Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference (NCC).

He also accused the CKC of misappropriating funds, mismanaging church institutions and operating on tribal lines.

Some of the notable Kenyans who were members of the church, including Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi and Chief Justice David Maraga have since decamped to the Kerengata church in Karen.