President William Ruto has agreed to shelve the Religious Organisations Bill, a brainchild of Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana in the wake of the Shakahola cult deaths.
He announced at a Sunday church service in Embakasi West that he will meet officials of the Federation of Evangelical and Indigenous Christian Churches of Kenya (FEICCK) to have a discussion on the bill and how it will affect the church movement before assenting it to law.
“I have listened keenly to your request about shelving plans to assent the bill into law,” said the President as he attended the Stewards Revival Pentecostal Church’s (SRPC) 14th anniversary.
The Mungatana Bill states that its object is to register religious organisations. A number of commentators and those opposed to this Bill are questioning the purpose of registration.
Yesterday, as the clerics from the federation applauded the maiden opportunity to lobby the president against assenting to the bill, Bishop Samuel Njiriri, FEICCK’s chairman wondered whether it was the lack of registration that led to the Shakahola deaths or the lethargy with the authorities to heed intelligence reports on the deadly issue.
“As a church we are saying that the Mungatana Bill is not a good law. Therefore, as we applaud the President for giving us opportunity to present our concerns, we are alive to the fact that the Bill becoming law, will bring problems to us because it blocks avenues of evangelising our children,” the SRPC presiding bishop said.
He added, “That was our request to the President to shelve that Bill, to stop assenting to it until we exhaust all avenues to rescue the genuine religious movement in the country.”
The Bill’s Explanatory Memorandum, he argued, denies any rights would be affected, but clearly the constitutional rights to freedoms of association, expression and religion would be restricted.
“We thank the President for finding time to come here to celebrate with us, to share the Word with us and to hear our grievances as the church,” Njiriri said.
The Federation’s General Secretary, Bish David Munyiri, also the founder and presiding bishop of Glory Outreach Assembly, also lauded the opportunity to present their concerns as a church.
“The Federation was instrumental in the election of the current government and we supported President Ruto.
“So today was a major opportunity for us to seek an appointment with the president as key stakeholders to review the two years of Kenya Kwanza government, track whether what we agreed upon during the pre-election has happened, and also listen to what he says about our concerns over the Mungatana Bill,” he said.
