End Of one-man show
The office of the Attorney General has proposed strong regulations to rein in renegade preachers as part of the state’s effort to put an end to the one-man show that it claims has converted certain religious organizations into cults.
The proposed Associations Bill establishes new, strict restrictions and mandates corporate governance for religious organizations.
Attorney General Justin Muturi stated that the new Bill “proposes coming up with governance, making sure that the societies being registered are accountable.”
End Of one-man show
Muturi recognizes the government’s powerlessness in the face of the renegade religious leaders when testifying before the Senate committee looking into the strange cult fatalities in Shakahola, Kilifi county.
Muturi claimed that the current Societies Act, passed in 1968 and governing the registration and management of societies, is weak to the Ad-Hoc committee led by Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana.
“Some of the shady activities that registered bodies are engaged in would have been detectable if there was some element of robustness in regulation,” Muturi added.
In answer to the senators’ inquiries concerning the registrar’s office’s lack of vigilance in dealing with rogue preachers, he remarked, “We need to digitize the office of the registrar because going through 100,000 files to see who has not filed taxes would require a huge work force.”
More than 120 bodies of people who are thought to be members of the Good News International church and who starved themselves to death as a result of preacher Paul Mackenzie’s radical sermons have been excavated.
The AG revealed yesterday that Ezekiel Odero’s New Life Church and Makenzi’s Good News International had each received a 30-day closure notice from the state.
“A notice to cancel the registration of the church has been issued under section 12 1(a) of the Societies Act,” the AG stated.
