Government urged to regulate churches to prevent Shakahola-like tragedies

Malindi, Friday, May, 6, 2023

KNA  by Emmanuel Masha 

Pressure is mounting on the government to regulate churches in the wake of the bizarre death occasioned by the teachings of cult leader Paul Mackenzie.

The National Council for Children Services (NCCS) and the Institute of Participatory Development – Kulamusana (IPD-K) said the absence of a regulatory framework to control mushrooming churches was to blame for the atrocities meted on innocent Kenyans in the name of religion.

Officials of the two organizations - the former a government agency and the later a civil society organization - said since the church had failed to regulate itself, there was need for Government to formulate laws to protect Kenyans from cultic teachings in order to prevent a similar occurrence in future.

Speaking separately in Malindi Town Thursday, the officials expressed displeasure at the way the government and the church had handled the issue of the doomsday preacher, saying their negligence was to blame for the deaths by fasting.

Bishop Bernard Njoroge Kariuki, a Director with the NCCS, said the state agency was dismayed that most of Paul Mackenzie’s victims were children, who were forced to fast to death by their parents, who had a God-given responsibility to protect them.

Speaking in Malindi before leading other NCCS officials on a tour of Shakahola area of Chakama location where the cult deaths occurred, Bishop Kariuki said the organization was dismayed that about 73 percent of the victims were children.

He said that as an organization charged with the mandate of protecting the welfare of children, NCCS was deeply saddened by what happened in Shakahola to children who could not decide for themselves that they wanted to fast to death.

“The council wishes to join other Kenyans to vehemently condemn these heinous and heartbreaking incidents,” he said adding, “The council at the same time wishes to condole with the families and relatives of all those affected.”

Bishop Kariuki said despite the fact that children have the right to worship, that religion should lead to life and not to death and that anybody leading children to religion to death is not only acting against the laws of Kenya but also the law of God.

He said that was absurd that a parent could take their own child to death, noting that that is not what God intended parents to do.

“The council wishes to call upon all actors, both state and non-state, to be vigilant in matters pertaining to their role in safeguarding rights and welfare of citizens and in particular the rights of children and other vulnerable groups,” he said.

He called on the government to put in place strategies to ensure that churches are regulated since they had not been able to regulate themselves as they requested during the tenure of Githu Muigai as Kenyas Attorney General.

“The government should come up with regulations to regulate churches failure to which this will happen again,” he said.

IPD-K Executive Director Mzungu Ngoma said apart from regulating the church, the government should take action against state agencies that did not carry out their mandates well, leading to the deaths of innocent people.

Courtesy; K.N.A