Nairobi — Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki now says proposed reforms on religious societies in the country will proceed unhindered despite opposition from a section of preachers.
Speaking Sunday during a church service in Tharaka Nithi County, Kindiki called on churches to back efforts to tame rogue preachers in the country in the wake of the revelation of the Shakahola starvation cult linked to controversial televangelist Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church.
The Interior CS stressed that the government will not back down in its resolve to regulate religious institutions even as he put on notice religious leaders who are opposed to the newly created taskforce mandated to explore a foolproof framework for self-regulation.
"The Church and other religious organisations have an obligation to support the government in its effort to get rid of these rogue preachers."
"And even if the Church refuses or opposes this crackdown on rogue preachers, we will go on with the operation. I am not about to change my mind on this matter. The President won't change his mind too," Kindiki said
He reiterated that the government will deal ruthlessly with the men of cloth who are out to mislead indoctrinate, radicalise Kenyans in the name of scriptures.
Kindiki likened some preachers in the country to the foxes that devour their followers and use the scriptures as a tool to fleece them of their hard-earned money and wealth for their own selfish needs.
"We will deal with them the same way we deal with terrorists," he said.
While singling out the Shakahola Forest Massacre, Kindiki said the loss of lives has not only affected Kilifi county but the entire country noting that the victims hail from different regions including Nyanza, Eastern Rift Valley, Central and the Coast region.
Mounting opposition
Kindiki said that just like Mackenzie, there exits many rogue preachers who are hiding inside religion in different parts of the country noting that the government will spear no effort in flushing them out
His remarks came against the backdrop of a statement by a section of Pentecostal Church leaders on May 9 castigating President William Ruto's decision to form a 17-member task force to review legal and regulatory framework governing religious organizations in Kenya.
In a statement, the leaders petitioned President Ruto to revoke the gazetted task force to come up with an all-inclusive membership which will also include representatives from the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches.
"The said task force was established without any consultation being done to the Pentecostal umbrella bodies and was ill-advised. None of the persons gazette are leaders in our collective associations hence the report will be biased," the movement said in a statement.
"In light of the above, we urge President William Ruto to revoke the gazette task force dated 5th May and come up with all-inclusive membership which represents Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches."
They added that because the church is already governed by the Society's Act then the government cannot create new regulations on a regular basis.
The preachers said that the church shouldn't be treated differently from the other institutions because the same approach is not taken when dealing with rogue doctors, lawyers, or teachers.
Extended Shakahola search
On Saturday, Kindiki announced that the search for bodies and survivors of Shakahola Forest starvation cult will extend to the edges of Tsavo East National Park, the Ministry of Interior and National Administration (MINA) announced Saturday.
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Initially, the search and exhumation exercise was concentrated on an 800-acre forest forming part of the expansive Chakama Ranch in Kilifi.
The Ministry of Interior announced multi-agency teams will utilize ground and drone search techniques in the expanded search exercise.
The Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki-led Ministry clarified that search and exhumation activities suspended Thursday will resume upon the completion of the Phase 2 of postmortem examination of the additional 123 bodies recovered in recent weeks.
According to the Interior Ministry, the postmortem exercise will commence on Wednesday, May 24, at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital.
MINA clarified that the search for graves and exhumation related to the Shakahola Massacre had been temporarily suspended to make logistical arrangements for the postmortem examination of the bodies recovered in Phase II of the exhumation exercise.
