• The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) has blamed the government over the Shakahola forest incident
• They blamed the government for not imposing stiffer measures to tame fraudulent religious leaders from manipulating their followers
• Sheikh Hasaan proposed that gatekeeping committees should be formed to regulate and oversight religious bodies
The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) has fingered the government over what they term as laxity in imposing stiffer measures to tame fraudulent religious leaders from manipulating their followers.
SUPKEM Leaders before the Senate committee
Presenting their views to the Senate AdHoc Committee, they said that if there were regulatory frameworks within which any doctrine-teaching individual would operate, then the Shakahola cult, where 274 people have been confirmed dead so far could have been averted.
“The government starting with the police, National Intelligence Service, Government, political leaders and the ministry of interior slept on their job in regard to Paul Mackenzie’s activities thus allowing the death in Shakahola to happen,” said Sheikh Hasaan Ole Nado.
To prevent such incidents from reoccurring, Sheikh Hasaan proposed that gatekeeping committees should be formed to regulate and oversight religious bodies.
“We propose that every religious umbrella organization [should] establish a caucus or doctrinal committee where distinguished religious scholars within its religious structures whose work will be to independently review teachings of religions and guide their followers accordingly,” he said.
“Kenyans have reached dangerous levels of socio-economic desperation to the extent that they are too gullible to religious misadventure as an escape to dire desperation.”
The government is currently probing the deaths as well as allegations of torture and inhumane treatment of followers of controversial pastor Paul Mackenzie and his Good News International Church based in Kilifi County.
Pastor Mackenzie is serving a 30-day detention which began May 10, alongside 17 other suspects including his wife who were arraigned at the Shanzu law courts.
The suspects are held in various police stations across Kilifi while investigations into the cult deaths continue.
Meanwhile, the number of victims who have been identified by their kin still remains at 19 while those still missing are 613.
