Evangelical churches yesterday threatened to go to court if they were not included in the constitutional review process.

They announced they would block a merger between the Ufungamano and parliamentary review teams even though last year they supported the Parliamentary Select Committee led by National Development Party leader Raila Odinga.

Their position was articulated by the head of the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa, Archbishop Samson Gaitho, who said more than 200 leaders of indigenous denominations would meet in Nairobi on Monday to decide.

"We are opposed to the National Council of Churches of Kenya being accorded a major stake in the new team at the expense of other church bodies," Archbishop Gaitho told journalists at the AIPCA Cathedral in Bahati, Nairobi, after opening a youth seminar.

The evangelical churches are a splinter group of the council of churches. In January, last year, at least 31 held a mass prayer meeting at Nairobi's Uhuru Park and rallied behind the parliamentary team headed by National Development Party leader Raila Odinga.

The meeting, dubbed Christian Unity 2000, was to counter another held a week earlier, grouping the mainstream churches, the Supreme Council of the Kenya Muslims and the Hindu community. It was the forum that launched "people-driven" reforms.

Bishop Arthur Kitonga of the Redeemed Church, Legio Maria's Archbishop Stephen Ondiek and Bishop Silas Yego of the African Inland Church were prominent in the Unity 2000 group.

Yesterday, Archbishop Gaitho said: "We have more than 800 registered denominations in this country and the NCCK represents only less than 40. We want to claim our stake in the merger." He said the leaders' meeting would also explore ways of conducting a parallel process.

The Archbishop said the AIPCA church had more than three million followers from various professions who could participate in the process.

He said the Unity 2000 team was opposed to the Ufungamano Initiative because it was not a "registered entity".