Nairobi, 10 May, 2023 / 9:26 pm (ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops in Kenya have faulted the move by President William Samoei Ruto-led government to regulate religious organizations and practices.
In their latest criticism of the Kenyan government, members of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) made reference to President Ruto’s establishment of a Taskforce on May 4 to facilitate the reviewing of the Legal and Regulatory Framework Governing Religious Organizations in Kenya amid investigations into the Shakahola starvation cult in the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi in Kilifi County.
“As a conference, we are concerned that instead of the government seeking to address the matter, attention is now on the regulation of churches,” KCCB Chairman, Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde, said in reference to the revelations around the starvation cult led by “pastor” Paul Mackenzie Nthenge of the Good News International Church.
Archbishop Kivuva who was addressing the congregation during the Episcopal Ordination of the Local Ordinary of Kenya’s Nakuru Diocese, Bishop Cleophas Oseso Tuka, cautioned the Kenyan government against “demonizing the practice of religion” in the country.
“We ask our political leaders to stop demonizing the practice of religion because of an obvious criminal act that would have been abated if our security agencies were alert and the plight of the people of Kenya,” the Local Ordinary of Kenya’s Mombasa Archdiocese said during the May 6 event.
