A Kenyan owned church is set to receive Ksh 40 million from a US county as a settlement on grounds of religious discrimination after the county rejected their plans to convert a house as a place of worship.
Rev Lucy Ware and Jesus Christ is the Answer Ministries Inc. sued the county in 2017 after they failed to ratify them to run a church on property she acquired in 2012.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S district stated that the county infringed the Religious land use and institutionalized persons Act. This was after a judge denied Lucy's petition and the county Board of Appeal refused to review her modified plan.
Area residents filed complaints about cars parked on the grass during the church services and mass cookouts.
According to the Baltimore County, Ware was required to apply for the discrepancy over obstruction and parking issues despite the zoning classification allowing the property as a rightful place of worship.
Neighbors hauled racial comments against her and the congregants. A ruling written by Judge Albert Diaz revealed that the church was vandalized and robbed.
The coming board counted the opinion in their defense claiming that the church went against the character of the surrounding community. They added that it failed to adhere to the zoning requirements.
She raised an argument with the U.S District court over board’s refusal to review the site plan as violation of federal and state religious discrimination laws.
U.S. Court of Appeal overruled the dismissal, noting that the lower court was wrong when it threw out Ware’s case. Ware’s zoning application was resubmitted to the county appeals board after the court decision, which then passed it.
