Kenya’s task force recommends State oversight to curb cults and ‘miracles for cash’ ministries
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A task force set up by Kenya’s president William Ruto has recommended a hybrid regulation framework that would hand the government greater oversight to curtail the spread of cults and financial predatory practices prevalent in some churches in Kenya. A proposed Religious Affairs Commission will provide oversight over religious organisations and work in tandem with umbrella religious associations to strengthen self-regulation.
While presenting the report to the president on July 30, 2024, the tasforce found that there was a lack of distinct legal framework tailored to the unique needs of religious organizations, unclear laws on crimes that could be considered religious and a general lack of oversight on TV and radio programmes that propagate exploitative ideologies.
The presidential task force was set up in May 2023 following the shocking discovery of mass graves containing 400 bodies suspected to be faithfuls of Good News International Church in a forest in Kenya’s South coast.
The founder of the religious cult, Paul Mackenzie, and the leadership, manipulated hundreds of people to starve to death as means to escape an apocalypse and to quicken ‘meeting Jesus’. A majority of the bodies exhumed were of women and children who MacKenzie insisted were to precede the men in their passage to the afterlife. Autopsy results showed that many of the victims died of starvation while others were strangled or suffocated.
The task force, chaired by Rev. Mutava Musyimi, recommended the drafting and enactment of laws specific for religious organisations to “provide clarity on appropriate legal personality, registration requirements, and clarity on crimes/offences committed under the guise/pretext of religion.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.christiandaily.com/news/kenyas-task-force-recommends-church-regulation-by-state-body.html.
