John McBride & Rev. Richard Bombay, Founders of CITAM Church

The history of the Christ Is the Answer Ministries (CITAM) dates back to 1952 when John McBride, a PAOC missionary, arrived in Nairobi with the vision of establishing a church.

The first church services were held at Rahimtulla Hall near Jevanjee Street.

In September 1960, the Church moved to 28 Valley Road where the present CITAM Valley Road is located.

The first sanctuary, built by Rev. Richard Bombay was dedicated to God on October 22, 1960.

At that time, the church was known as the Pentecostal Evangelistic Centre (PEC).

It was a small assembly of 20-30 members who were mainly European and Canadian expatriates.

The name of the church changed from Nairobi Evangelistic Centre to Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC).

He is credited with the design of the church logo and his leadership in the writing of the first Church Constitution during the pastorate of Rev. Mervyn Thomas in the 1970s.

There was tremendous growth in the 1980s during the pastorate of Rev. Roy Upton and Rev. Dennis White, who handed over the leadership of the church to Bishop Bonifes Adoyo.

Bishop Adoyo became NPC’s first African leader.

He led the church until 2010 when he retired and handed over leadership of the church to Rev. Dr. David Oginde.

Bishop Oginde handed over the ministry’s leadership baton to the current Presiding Bishop, Rev. Calisto Odede, in 2020.

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CITAM Growth & Other Operations

Over the years, the church has experienced continuous growth to the currently 38 assemblies, sitting about 45,000 people in Sunday service attendance.

Apart from spiritual ministry to the congregations, the Church provides quality education through the CITAM Schools and PAC University.

Besides, it runs the CITAM Children’s Center for the rehabilitation of street children, which has seen many disadvantaged children get a quality life and education through to university.

The Church is also involved in special community development programs among the underprivileged communities, especially in Northern Kenya. CITAM also provides value-based media services through Hope FM and Hope TV.

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Governance

CITAM is not owned by any individual or external entity.

Instead, it operates under a well-defined governance structure that has promoted sound stewardship and accountability with separation of financial management from pastoral ministry.

The church governance structure is as follows:

• The Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) – This is the supreme governing organ of the Church.
• The Regional Annual General Meetings (RAGMs)- Operate at the regions. It processes decisions for approval and ratification by the ADC with the assistance of the Deacon Board.
• The Deacon Board – Consists of twelve members elected by the AGM to oversee all the legal and administrative matters of the Church. The Board is responsible for the implementation of the decisions of the ADC and RAGMs.
• The Council of Elders – Safeguards the vision and mission of the Church and oversees all spiritual matters of the Church.
• The Management of CITAM’s affairs is executed under the supervision of the Presiding Bishop who provides oversight to the Church assemblies through the Senior Pastors and ministry coordinators.

The Presiding Bishop is the Chairman of the ADC and the RAGMs.

He/she also provides supervision of CITAM’s administration that includes the ministry operations and management of business units through the Director For Administration (DFA).

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