Empower religious bodies to regulate churches, Siaya preachers urge government

Siaya, Friday April 28, 2023 

K.N.A By Philip Onyango 

Christian and Muslim leaders in Siaya are calling on the government to empower national religious bodies to oversee and regulate their members in a bid to tame cultism.

Through the Siaya Interfaith council, the religious leaders said that national interfaith bodies such as the national Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), Supreme council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) and the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya will perform the regulation task better if mandated and report back to the national government.

Speaking at the Siaya Scout Centre where they had joined other stakeholders in a meeting to review the status of human rights in the county, the leaders at the same time called on the government not to victimise heads of other denominations on the account of what happened at Shakahola in Kilifi county where more than 100 bodies of Good News International church adherents, believed to have starved to death as a result of the teachings of their spiritual head, have been exhumed so far.

Reverend Josephine Philip called on the government to carry out transparent investigations into the saga and not drag innocent church leaders into the mess.

The clerics said that there was need to strengthen the national bodies that bring together churches and other religious bodies to carry out the regulatory function and ensure that right doctrines are imparted to the believers.

The chairman of the Ugunja sub county chapter of the Siaya  Interfaith council, bishop Elias Ouma Sewe said those who commit atrocities using the name of the church must be made to carry their own cross, adding that the government should not treat church leaders with suspicion.

“It is a challenge to us, finding ourselves lumped together with a suspect,” said bishop Sewe saying that independent investigations must be done to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Addressing the occasion, Haki Africa official, Fredrick Ojiro said the media must be allowed to continue informing Kenyans on what is happening in Shakahola.

He said the media has been in the forefront in exposing the laxity amongst security agencies, even after families raised red flags.

Ojiro called for the resignation of senior internal security bosses, among them cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and Inspector general of police, Japheth Koome alleging that had their officers performed their duties diligently, innocent lives could not have been lost in Shakahola.

Courtesy K.N.A