The members of the Presidential Taskforce on the Legislative Regulatory Framework for Religious Organisations visited Kiambu County to conduct a public participation meeting with leaders of religious institutions at the Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology
Speaking at the event Archbishop Maurice Muhatia who is the chair of the task force outlined the duties and roles of the task force in establishing an understanding of the issues that religious institutions in the county are facing.
“We have traveled to many counties and have been very keen on what the people are going through, we do not want to be caught off guard by another Shakhaola incident again,” he said.
Charles Kanjama, a lawyer from the office of the Attorney General who is part of the task force further elaborated on the duty of the task force in investigating religious institutions.
“We are here to ask you whether you think religion is being misused in the county, how we can solve the issues if there are misused and what you would want to be changed,” he said
Joseph Kiarie, a Bishop representing Sauti ya Kanisa Kenya, an Umbrella group, expressed the need for there to be a clear line between government and religion and that the church should be a self-regulating body.
“When it comes to the church and state interference we are saying no. We believe as one community that clear distinctions should be made and regulations should be implemented to separate religions from the government,” he said.
“Just like we have IPOA for the police we would also like to have one for the religious communities, it would be helpful when inquiring about the misuse of religion in many of these institutions,” he said.
Ephraim Kamau a local pastor emphasized the importance of having a framework for the government to register more umbrella bodies to cover different churches in the area making it easier to identify issues.
“If we can gain better coverage of the religious institutions that are coming up in the country we can easily establish a connection down to the grassroots which will be very helpful when looking for suspects who are misusing religion,” he said.
The Presidential task force was established this year in May and consists of 17 members divided into three distinct groups who have been visiting various counties to identify gaps that have allowed extremist institutions to start up.
By Cedric Karungaru
