Nyeri Catholic Diocese Archbishop, Anthony Muheria, has called for the audit of all religious leaders to establish the source of their wealth.
Archbishop Muheria says that the move will expose rogue people masquerading as preachers who are using religion to lure Kenyans into poverty.
He noted that the audit will put a stop to rampant monetisation of religion that has seen Kenyans go as far as losing their life in the name of false religious doctrines.
“All of us religious leaders including myself should be able to declare what I have in my accounts and how much I own. And it should be public for all the Christians who follow my church. This is the only way the congregation can be defended from the greed of any rogue religious leader,” said Muheria.
His sentiments come at the height of calls to the state to put in place tougher measures to regulate religious activities in the country in the wake of the discovery of the mass graves in Shakahola, Kilifi County where more than 90 bodies of people believed to have fasted to death were discovered.
On Sunday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki described the incidents in Shakahola Forest as the clearest abuse of human right to freedom of worship.
He said that while the state would remain respectful of religious freedoms tighter regulation including self-regulation of every church, mosque, temple or synagogue would be enforced going forward.
Further, Archbishop Muheria termed the Shakahola revelations as true testament of how deeply corruption had entrenched itself in the country.
The Nyeri Archbishop said that there was a need to put in place laws that protect Kenyans from pseudo religious denominations.
He said that the system had failed the victims of the Good News International Church by their failure to take action despite being in the know about controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzie’s dubious dealings.
“What has happened signals the extent of the corruption in our country. There is no way this reality would have taken place without those people who have the duty to know, knowing unless the system had been corrupted. It is clear that everyone in leadership in that area starting with the political leadership have a case to answer,” he said.
“We should wake up to the reality that when form pacts with corruption this is what we are going to harvest. We could have only seen a section of what we harvested that a cultic leader who is creating a whole network to kill can survive in a system for five years because our systems was short-circuited so many times by corruption,” he added.
The Nyeri Archbishop was speaking at Our Lady of Consolata Cathedral on Wednesday afternoon.
By Wangari Mwangi and Yvette Kimani
