By Mugabe Micheal, Communication Secretary, Najjanankumbi Seventh-day Adventist Church

On 22 October 2026, Pastor Blasious M. Ruguri told staff at morning worship at the East-Central Africa Division (ECD) headquarters near Nairobi that he would retire on 31 December 2026. He had led the division for 16 years. During that time the ECD became the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s largest world division by membership, with nearly 6 million members in 12 countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

The announcement came about 15 months after he was re-elected to another five-year term at the 2025 General Conference (GC) Session in St. Louis. Pastor Ruguri is only the second president the ECD has had since it took its current form in the early 2000s.

Early Life and Calling

Ruguri was born and raised in Kenya. He studied theology at Bugema University (then a college) in Uganda, the Adventist school where many East African church leaders trained. He entered pastoral ministry in 1982 and was ordained in 1986.

Education

Period	Institution	Qualification
1978-1981	Bugema University, Uganda	Bachelor’s degree in Theology
1988-1991	Andrews University programme at Newbold College, UK	MA in Pastoral Theology/Ministry
2011-2014	Andrews University	Doctor of Ministry (Global Missions Leadership)

He earned his doctorate while already serving as division president. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Church Leadership.

Rising Through the Ranks (1982-2010)

His early career was in youth work, education and stewardship:

• Until 1985: Education and Youth Director, Central Kenya Mission Field
• 1985-1989: Youth Director, East African Union
• 1988-1991: Graduate study at Newbold
• 1991-1995: Stewardship Director, East African Union
• Mid-1990s to 2010: Executive Secretary of the division, working with its first president, Geoffrey G. Mbwana

According to the Adventist Archives, Mbwana led the division from 2002 to 2010, followed by Pastor Ruguri from 2010.

His background shaped his later agenda. Youth ministry pointed toward mass mobilisation of church members. Stewardship pointed toward financial self-reliance. Years as secretary taught him how the church’s structures and policies work.

The Presidency (2010-2026)

Election in Atlanta, 2010

At the 2010 GC Session in Atlanta, Mbwana was elected a general vice president of the world church. Pastor Ruguri, then division secretary, was elected to replace him. The Adventist Review described the ECD at that time as covering 10 nations and about 2.5 million members, “from Eritrea in the north to Tanzania in the south.”

He was re-elected in 2015 (San Antonio), 2022 (St. Louis, the session delayed by COVID-19) and 2025 (St. Louis). As division president he was also a vice president of the General Conference.

Membership Growth

• 2010: about 2.5 million members
• 2020: more than 4.5 million, with 1,336,206 added in five years
• 2026: nearly 6 million

That is more than twice the 2010 figure. At the 2020 year-end meetings Ruguri said:

The ECD story is not just a report. It is a testimony of miracles.

Pastor Blasious M. Ruguri, ECD year-end meetings, 2020

The division also set itself a goal of doubling its membership by the end of the 2020-2025 cycle.

Total Member Involvement

Pastor Blasious M. Ruguri strongly promoted Total Member Involvement (TMI), the world church’s call for every member to do evangelism. In 2020 he listed TMI, new churches in previously unreached areas, and a new medical school among the division’s main achievements. He asked members to adopt the motto for the next five years: “I Will Go Make Disciples.”

He also practised it himself. In a 2019 piece for the General Conference’s United in Prayer series, “Taking Total Member Involvement Personally,” he wrote that leaders should not see themselves as too busy to evangelise. He described how he and his wife planned a small evangelistic series in his home village. In his account, it grew far beyond their plans and planted a church in an area long “dominated by groups who are unfriendly to the Adventist work.” He called it “an answered prayer and personal miracle for me and my wife.”

Under his leadership the division also ran large campaigns such as ECD Homecoming and Hope for Africa. The best known was the 2016 evangelistic series in Rwanda, where GC President Ted N. C. Wilson preached and the church reported tens of thousands of baptisms.

Higher Education and Medicine

Adventist University of Africa (AUA). Ruguri was chancellor of AUA, the church’s graduate university near Nairobi, from 2010 to 2023. In 2016 he helped install Dr. Delbert Baker as vice-chancellor, saying: “We look forward to working with him to help take AUA onward and upward.”

Adventist School of Medicine of East-Central Africa (ASOME). The medical school in Kigali, Rwanda, may prove his most lasting project. He presented it in 2020 as one of the division’s major milestones and served as its chancellor. At a white-coat ceremony in January 2026 he thanked the Rwandan government, including for providing a teaching and referral hospital, which he called essential to the school’s success.

Financial Self-Reliance

The division’s strategic plan aimed to make the ECD financially self-sufficient and a strong net contributor to the world church. By 2023, the GC Stewardship Ministries department reported that the ECD had become an overall net contributor to the church’s global finances. This was a significant change for a region once largely dependent on outside funding.

Women’s Ministries

In 2020, the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Ministries department in the ECD began with a recorded message from Ruguri to women and girls across the division. The department’s own reports credit his support.

Challenges and Controversies

A full account of his tenure has to include the difficulties.

Uganda, 2012. Ugandan media reported comments by Ruguri supporting the country’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Adventist LGBTQ advocacy groups criticised him. He later said the reports went beyond what he meant, and that he did not support violence or the death penalty against gay people.

Governance problems in Kenya. Kenya has more than 1.3 million Adventists and a long history of disputes over leadership, ethnicity and governance. Over the past decade these have included breakaway groups, court cases, church closures and confrontations during worship services.

The Opticoin crisis (2026). In his final year, the Opticoin/Wealth Sharing Group cryptocurrency scheme collapsed. At the same time, the Central Rift Valley Conference was in a leadership crisis after dismissing 19 pastors.

• The ECD Executive Committee set up an investigative commission on 25 February 2026. Hearings began on 2 March at the Advent Hill headquarters.
• The commission’s 61-page report, presented on 15 April 2026, found that some church employees had promoted the scheme. It said leaders had failed to respond adequately, and it described “a pattern of leadership failing to pay keen attention to the requirements of Church policies and ministerial ethics.”
• It recommended leadership changes, a fraud audit, stronger accountability, mediation and a special constituency meeting of the East Kenya Union Conference.
• Some members later accused officials of trying to “neutralize, dilute, sanitize, and quietly circumvent” the recommendations.

The ECD did order and receive an independent-minded inquiry. Even so, these events were a major test in his last year, and observers have described them as a balance between rapid growth and institutional strain.

Family

Pastor Ruguri is married to Mrs. Elizabeth Ruguri, and they have three adult children. His 2019 account of evangelism in his home village shows the couple’s ministry as a joint effort.

Transition and Tributes

His successor, Dr. Moses Maka, was born in Uganda in 1969. He holds degrees from Spicer Adventist University in India, Newbold College in the UK and Sahmyook University in South Korea, where he earned a PhD in Old Testament. He previously led the Uganda Union Mission and was elected ECD secretary in 2025. On taking office he said:

I particularly thank Elder Ruguri, whose shoes I can never fit nor walk in. The foundation he has laid and the sacrifice he has borne for the Church in East-Central Africa Division to be what it is today will remain indelible. I salute him.

Dr. Moses Ndimukika Maka, incoming ECD president

Assessing the Legacy

Ruguri’s 44-year ministry, from a youth director in central Kenya to vice president of a worldwide church, includes:

1. Growth. Membership rose from about 2.5 million to about 6 million, making the ECD the church’s largest division.
2. Mobilisation. He promoted evangelism by ordinary members, rather than leaving it to pastors and paid staff.
3. Institutions. He led AUA as chancellor and helped found an Adventist medical school in Rwanda.
4. Self-reliance. The ECD went from receiving funds to being a net contributor.
5. Unfinished governance work. Kenya’s problems show that structures, accountability and trust have not kept pace with growth.

His successors inherit a large, young and fast-growing church, along with the job of making its governance as strong as its evangelism.

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Sources

1. ANN, “New leadership elected to serve East-Central Africa Division,” 2 Nov 2026, adventist.news
2. Spectrum, “East-Central Africa Division President Blasious Ruguri to Retire After 16 Years,” 22 Oct 2026
3. Spectrum, “Moses Maka Elected ECD President, Tom Ogal Executive Secretary,” 2 Nov 2026
4. Adventist Review / GC Bulletin, 29 June 2010 (Atlanta election report), documents.adventistarchives.org
5. Adventist Archives, “East-Central Africa Division” (list of presidents)
6. GC Session 2025, Voted Positions
7. Adventist Review, “In East-Central Africa, Church Leaders Thank God for Achievements,” Nov 2020
8. B. Ruguri, “Taking Total Member Involvement Personally,” United in Prayer, 12 May 2019 (GC Ministerial Association)
9. Adventist Review, “2-Day Celebrations Welcome Delbert Baker to Adventist University of Africa,” Apr 2016
10. ECD, “Celebrating the Future of Medicine: ASOME Medical School Hosts White Coat Ceremony,” Jan 2026
11. GC Stewardship Ministries, “The ECD Stewardship Leadership Council News,” Jul 2023
12. GC Women’s Ministries, “ECD Celebrates 25 Years of WM”
13. Spectrum, “ECD Commission Recommends Leadership Changes and Fraud Audit in Kenya…,” Jun 2026
14. Spectrum, “Growth and Strain in Kenya…,” Mar 2026; Adventist Today, Mar 2026
15. ECD official site, Presidential Office page