The 28-page booklet seeks to offer guidelines on internal mechanisms to dispute resolution, accountability and ethical conduct among church leaders and members.
The code of conduct begins with a preamble, acknowledging God's supremacy, the Holy Bible as the principal of faith and the Constitution of Kenya 2010 as the principal civil law.
According to the chairman of the Kenya Christian Professional Forum Senior Counsel Charles Kanjama, the code of conduct ties in with Article 159 of the Constitution and offers room for alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
The code is applicable to churches and church institutions, church leaders and para-church organisations.
On leadership and governance, the code says that every church shall put in place appropriate policies in leadership, management and control mechanisms.
That leadership and governance structure shall ensure accountability and each church or denomination shall have an internal governance body that can hold the church leaders accountable.
An annual forum shall also be put in place by each church to report the affairs of the church to its members.
The church shall also safeguard the alters and pulpits from being used by politicians to advance political agendas.
The code further states that the contributions given in church forums shall remain private and shall not be used as a campaign tool or a ticket to access the pulpit for political messaging.
On finances and assets, the code states that the church shall adhere to honesty, integrity, due diligence and transparency in financial stewardship.
Additionally, the church shall employ ethical conduct when soliciting contributions or raising funds from members or external donors.
Assets belonging to the institutions shall be registered in the name of that institution and its trustees, except where the asset is meant as a gift to an individual church leader.
The code commits that the church shall keep an accurate financial statement in accordance with accepted financial practices and the accounts shall subjected to an audit.
Church leaders are required by the code not to sexually harass a member or fellow church leader, mislead the church or the general public and knowingly give false information.
On disciplinary action against rogue pastors, the code guides that every church shall constitute an independent internal committee that shall be responsible for handling complaints and concerns involving church leaders with regard to breaches of the code.
A church leader proven to have breached the code can be reprimanded, suspended for a limited period, removed from church leadership and expelled from the fellowship of the church.
With all these wonderful sections of the code, the last page provides a declaration form, that a church or umbrella body, church institution, or organisation needs to append their signature in acknowledgement that they will adhere to the requirements in the document.
This is where the problem sets in: who does the the code target? Churches like Citam, Catholic, Anglican and SDA have well-structured internal mechanisms to run their affairs against infiltration of rogue preachers like Paul Mackenzie and Kanyaris of this world.
According to the Hart-Fuller debate by Lon. L. Fuller and H. L. Hart American law professor and his English counterpart respectively, sometimes standard instances of the words may not be sufficient to give proper effect to the law. Prof Hart calls these as the problems of the penumbra.
It then becomes necessary that the meaning of the words in a statute is decided first while applying legal rules to the facts of the case.
The drafters of the code of conduct say the document is a guideline and it is not mandatory as a church can adopt it in its entirety or just a section of it.
Let's go back in time to in 2014 when controversial Pastor Victor Kanyari was the subject of an exposé by KTN over fake miracles and coached testimonies.
Kanyari was summoned by the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya to answer to the allegations but he rubbed them off, saying he does not subscribe to their rules since he is not their member.
He told them to their faces that he was not a member of EAK and he was in business, while they were preaching the gospel. Essentially, EAK could not deal with the preacher.
It's almost impossible to police morality because the likes of Kanyari and Mackenzi or any other rogue pastor are unlike to append their signatures to the code.
The code of conduct is a great tool to self-regulate the church but it needs to be anchored on a force of law somewhere—an enabling statute.
The document could thus be complemented by the eagerly awaited report by a 14-member task force commissioned to look into Kenya’s religion’s regulatory framework. It is led by former National Council of Churches of Kenya secretary-general Mutava Musyimi.
The task force has been mandated to identify gaps in the legal, institutional and governance systems that have allowed cults and extremist groups to operate, and make proposals on how the public can report such cases.
The team will also come up with proposals on standards and minimum certification requirements for all religious organisations and their leaders to they registered and allowed to operate.
The writer is a sub-editor with The Star
