logo
ADVERTISEMENT

Regulating churches will be disastrous, Catholic bishops warn

Said that the move has yielded undesirable results in other countries.

image
by LUCY MUMBI

News09 June 2023 - 10:10
ADVERTISEMENT

In Summary


  • • On Friday, Catholic bishops censured the government for failing to prevent the death and stated that it had lost the moral authority to investigate the matter.
  • • Kivuva said the question of who will regulate and how the same will be done raises a number of issues.
The Catholic Bishops through the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops during a press conference at Russel House, Karen, Nairobi on April 20, 2023.

Catholic bishops have warned that attempts by the State to regulate churches would be disastrous.

The bishops told the Senate Ad Hoc Committee investigating the proliferation of religious organisations and circumstances leading to the deaths of over 200 people in Shakahola, Kilifi, that the move has yielded undesirable results in other countries.

Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops chairman Archbishop Martin Kivuva cited several countries in Africa and the world that regulated churches and ended up causing more problems.

“It is our considered opinion that regulating churches is discriminatory as it tends to single out specific religions or faith formations,” he told the committee.

He added that Kenya has witnessed many attacks and killings by extremists but their religious affiliations have never been in question and were dealt with as isolated individuals and criminal groups.

Kivuva said the question of who will regulate and how the same will be done raises a number of issues.

“Given that majority of Kenyans subscribe to one faith, the regulator is bound to be a member of a particular religion. This means that the member will eventually dictate activities of another religion that affect the freedom of minorities,” he explained.

The Danson Mungatana-led committee has received submissions from several stakeholders and even visited Pastor Paul Mackenzie’s farm in Shakahola forest for a fact-finding mission.

More than 240 bodies of the followers of Pastor Mackenzie’s Goodnews International Ministries have been found in shallow graves in the forest in what is being investigated as mass murder.

Mackenzie has been allegedly encouraging his followers to fast to death. His church, Good News International, purports to be followers of the End Time Message of William Branham, who was believed to stage miracles.

On Friday, Catholic bishops censured the government for failing to prevent the death and stated that it had lost the moral authority to investigate the matter.

“We call on the government to make deliberate efforts to restore public trust which has been massively eroded by the Shakahola massacre,” Kivuva added.

He said State actors should shun interfering with religious matters and use of religion for political reasons.

“We strongly note that State actors have no moral authority to convene or finance inter-faith gatherings or formations,” he stated.

Kivuva added that the principle of separation of powers between the State and the church will be upheld as the government seeks to give justice to the victims of Shakahola.

ADVERTISEMENT

logo© The Star 2024. All rights reserved