Musyimi taskforce to begin its sittings
The government’s efforts to regulate the operations of religious organisations kick off in earnest today with Kenyans set to give their views to the presidential task force chaired by former MP Mutava Musyimi.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kindiki Kithure yesterday announced that the task force will commence its sittings immediately and asked Kenyans to offer their views on the way forward.
He urged the task force to talk to the church and all stakeholders to come up with regulations on registration of churches.
“Wakristu wenzangu, mjitokeze kwa jopokazi hili kuanzia kesho mseme iwapo mngependa tuwe na Mackenzie wengine wanaozidi kuwahadaa watu wetu na kuwapotosha (Fellow Christians, come to the task force from tomorrow and say if you would like us to have more (preachers) like Mackenzie who continue to lie to our people while misleading them),” Kindiki said.
Kindiki who was speaking when he attended a church service at Kenya Assemblies of God in Sagana, Kirinyaga County said that the government will do whatever it can to ensure that never again will the kind of tragedy that occurred at Shakahola ever happen again.
Violent extremism
“There is no difference between what happened at Shakahola with terrorism. The same way we have viciously fought terrorism and violent extremism hiding behind Islam is the same way we will fight extremists and terrorists hiding behind Christianity and using the Holy scriptures to mislead our people,” he told the congregants.
He added; “So far we have lost more people in Shakahola than we have lost to terrorist attacks at Garissa University, Westgate, and Dusit. That is why religious terrorism must be fought. We will not relent in dealing with the rogue preachers in our churches just like we fought those hiding behind Islam.”
President William Ruto, on May 5, appointed the task force chaired by former Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi to review the legal and regulatory framework governing religious organisations.
Explaining the decision to form the task force, Ruto lamented that the indicated that the Shakahola deaths had opened a lid on the need to regulate religious institutions.
In a gazette notice, Ruto appointed Musyimi, to lead the task force whose mandate will run for six months.
The mandate of the task force includes identifying gaps and propose legal and governance changes to prevent religious extremism.
“Formulate proposals on civic education and additions to educational curricula that sensitize Kenyans on identifying, avoiding or leaving religious extremist organisations,” the gazette notice read in part.
The task force will also propose standards to be used to issue certificates to various religious organisations in the country.
Yesterday, Kindiki warned that the government will not back down on its resolve to weed out all rogue preachers who are using the holy scriptures to mislead, radicalise, and indoctrinate their followers.
“The operation on criminals hiding behind religion is not a war against any faith or institution. Crime knows no religion,” Kindiki clarified.
Church leaders are opposed to President Ruto’s move to gazette the task force terming it as a knee-jerk reaction to the Shakahola massacre.
Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) led by Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit said it would support any regulation aimed at stemming the proliferation of cultic practices in the church but insisted that such a law must promote religious freedoms for all citizens.
Meanwhile, the third phase of the exhumation of bodies at Shakahola forest kicks off today targeting 22 new mass graves that could contain several bodies.
The exhumation process was on a 14-day break to allow pathologists to conduct post-mortem assessments on the 129 bodies that had been exhumed earlier.
The Interior Ministry maintained that the search and rescue efforts in the expansive Shakahola forest will continue uninterrupted with the multi-agency security team on the ground supported by aerial surveillance.
