Proposal to register religious institutions under one umbrella

Narok, Tuesday, July 4, 2023

KNA by Ann Salaton

The residents of Narok town have proposed the establishment of a new umbrella body in every county within which all the religious institutions in the specific counties would be registered.

They spoke during a public participation forum led by the Presidential task force for the review of religious institutions presided over by Bishop Dr. Mark Kariuki.

The religious leaders led by the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya Chairman Reverend Abraham Sitienei said it will be easy to bring every religious institution into account if they were under one umbrella.

“I support the majority view of establishing a new religious umbrella in every county that would help us to regulate religious activities in that specific county,” said Rev Sitienei.

Abdallah Shaaban, a resident and the leader of the Muslim youth in the county said the new umbrella will help to monitor all religious institutions under it and will be answerable to the authority in case of any negative occurrences.

With a well-established religious umbrella, he said, the country will be able to deal with issues of radicalization and stereotyping of other religions.

“For many years, our Islamic religion has been associated with radicalization and hence the stereotyping, with this new umbrella we suggested these two issues would be dealt with properly” added Shaaban.

Bishop Kariuki explained that the task force was established by the president so as to review all the legal and regulatory frameworks on religious institutions, saying one of the best ways of doing it is to collect views from the public.

“This task force was established by the president to look at religious institutions and come up with a comprehensive report on how to regulate the institutions. We are here to listen to the residents of Narok County to get their views which will be incorporated in our final draft,” said the renowned Bishop.

His sentiments were echoed by Dr. Faridun Abdallah, a member of the task force, who said that the task force will take into consideration the views raised by the Narok people as they were positive and achievable.

“We have had a good conversation today which has brought positive ideas. This is unlike in other counties where we met opposition or lack of quorum,” he said.

Courtesy ; K. N. A