Kindiki: We'll not backtrack on regulation of churches

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kindiki Kithure has said the government will not backtrack on its decision to have churches regulated.

He said a section of religious leaders have been opposing the move.

However, the CS has said the government will never again allow the incident an occurrence of what happened in Shakahola where he confirmed that over 386 bodies have been recovered from mass graves.

The government, he noted, trusted religious leaders and had a carefree attitude towards them which he said led to the death of many innocent Kenyans.

"That should never and will never happen again, that someone can hide behind the scripture and hurt so many innocent Kenyans," he said.

Speaking at Kamahuha PEFA church in Maragua, Kindiki said the number of Shakahola victims was higher than the victims of terror.

Kindiki said previously, many Kenyans thought extremism only existed in the Islam religion but the happenings at Shakahola have proven otherwise.

He vowed to ensure all criminals hiding behind religion to hurt Kenyans are flushed out and wondered on whose behalf those opposing the regulation of faith-based organisations are speaking.

He said many government officials led by President William Ruto are religious and constantly visit places of worship, and therefore cannot oppress them.

"The best thing we can do for the country is to ensure such a thing never happens again. We will not allow somebody who is not licensed, who decides how his church is run without being held accountable to continue hurting Kenyans," he said.

"Moving forward, we must know all religious leaders, who they are through their various groups, must ensure they are licensed and that they're qualified to lead. This message should go to all Bishops, reverends, priests pastors, sheikhs and imams." 

He urged the clergy to help identify rogue religious leaders within their midst' but insisted that they will be flushed out regardless.

He disclosed that by now, a total of 336 bodies have been recovered from Shakahola forest as the exercise takes a break from tomorrow (Monday) to allow for postmortem to be conducted.

In the first phase of the exercise, Kindiki said 112 bodies were retrieved while 129 were recovered in the second phase and 95 in the third.

Many more mass graves, he noted, are yet to be dug up, meaning the number of victims could rise.

"The country has suffered a great loss occasioned by our confidence in a religious organisation and the belief that anybody preaching the Bible or Quran is a man of God," he said.

But the president has instructed the Ministry to ensure all bodies buried in the mass graves are recovered and handed over to their families after they are processed.

He appealed for patience from Kenyans and families with missing kin saying DNA profiling has to be conducted on all the recovered bodies and that the process takes time.

After the exercise is concluded, Kindiki said the government will organize a major inter-denominational ceremony to cleanse the area 'where huge satanic work had been done'.

A monument will also be erected in the forest to serve as a reminder for future generations.

"We have no issue with the church. Our issue is with a few criminals hiding in the church to mislead their followers. We're asking church leaders to partner with us to reign in those defiling the church and destroying lives," he said.