The head of state said that he will this week appoint the team to get to the bottom of the deaths that have shocked the country and the world
“This week, I will be appointing a judicial commission of inquiry so that what happened in Shakahola does not happen again in the Republic of Kenya,” Ruto said.
He made the announcement in Kapenguria, West Pokot County where he attended a church service on Sunday.
At least 110 bodies have been exhumed of people believed to be members of the Good News International Church who mostly starved themselves to death following extremist teaching by Pastor Paul Mackenzie.
“We are forming judicial commission of inquiry so that we can get to the bottom of what really happened in Shakahola with Makenzi and all his collaborators,” the President said.
Ruto said all the security personnel who slept on the job while Kenyans were being massacred in Kilifi have been transferred.
They include National Intelligence Service officers, criminal investigators and commissioners have bene transferred to pave the way for a thorough probe.
“We have asked them to leave so that we can get to the bottom of what happened,” Ruto said.
The President also, apparently ruling out calls for state to regulate churches, said he will be meeting religious leaders to form a task force for self-regulation.
He said the task force will come up with a self-regulation framework to weed out self-seeking preachers and imams.
“I will have consultation with our religious leaders to have a task force so that we can weed out the characters who want to abuse religion to run business and thugs who are anti-religion in the Republic of Kenya,” he said.
Several people, including MPs, have been calling for tough regulation of the religious organisations and their leaders to tame rogue leaders who take advantage of their followers to exploit them and even kill them.
“We want to provide a framework agreed with our religious leaders,” Ruto said.
“A framework that will provide for self-regulation so that in the church, our spiritual leaders can have a mechanism where they can point out to government those who want to exploit religion for other purposes.”
(Edited by V. Graham)
