The High Court in Kakamega has asked 26 priests sued by the Greek Orthodox Church Diocese of Kisumu and all Western Kenya to file submissions on why they should not vacate the church's property after renouncing their faith.

The Greek Othodox Church sued the 26 saying their defection to the Russian Orthodox Church had made the former faithful "denounce, renounce and remove themselves" from the Greek formation.

Justice Patrick Otieno ordered the priests who stayed put in the church's plots of land and church buildings to do so speedily in line with defending their stand so that the case kicks off early next year.

"Let the respondents, if they have not responded to the petition, do so within seven (7) days so that the matter may be progressed towards closure. The matter is stood over until February 13, 2023 for a case conference," he said of the case filed in March and had been objected to by the defecting priests.

Otieno at the same time dismissed with costs the preliminary objections filed against the petition by the defectors, saying they cleverly sneaked in the application to drag the wheels of justice.

"The raising of the objections was clearly unnecessary, has only ended in the delay of the matter and thus needs to be discouraged so that litigation is not delayed and convoluted by points which ought to be argued in the usual way but parties improperly raise the same as preliminary points," he said.

The grounds for the objection were that the High Court, Kakamega lacked jurisdiction to determine the petition as it involved an employment and labour dispute reserved for the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

"The Greek Church asserts ownership rights in its petition which ought to be canvassed before the Environment and Land Court pursuant to article 162 of the Constitution of Kenya."

And their last ground was that they were never taken to task by the police over breach of peace which is a matter of criminal law and in respect of which the DCI and ODPP reserved powers to handle and not their Greek Orthodox opposites.

The Greek Orthodox lamented in its court papers that: "Despite such renunciation of faith by the 26, They have persisted in their occupation and use of the premises belonging to the Greek Orthodox and are converting the same premises for the conduct of the affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In doing so they are causing breach of the peace and interfering with the freedom of worship of the members of Greek Orthodox."

The 26 defectors listed on court papers filed by Bishop Marcos Theodosi of the Greek Orthodox include Athanasius Amadiva, Nicholas Manguari, Innocent Mucheshi, Johaness Mutsotso, Christos Amuyunzu among others.

The documents also note that the 26 priests "are by force purporting to convert the premises of the Greek Orthodox Church for carrying out services and functions of the Russian Orthodox Church" a thing that causes tension.