Ruto Has Demonstrated He Is Committed To Win War Against Religious Cults And Extremism
The Mt Kenya Times 
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- In the next few days, I am going to form a commission of inquiry into Mackenzie cult activities and the depth of Shakahola killings.
- The President lived to his word. He also formed a Taskforce led by former secretary general of NCCK Mutava Musyimi.
- The team is expected to propose legal and governance changes to prevent religious extremism.
- This will be preceded by public hearings during which the members will listen, collate and collect the views of the all stakeholders.
- I have heard the pastors of small Evangelical churches expressing fear that this could lead to deregistration and cancellation of licenses of the churches they own.
When the media exposed the shocking revelation of shallow mass graves where more than one hundred people, who had had fallen prey to cultic and extremist teachings of Pastor Paul Mackenzie, had been buried, President William Ruto came out gun blazing.
He roundly condemned the pastor and likened his activities to those of a terrorist.
I call upon the law enforcers to immediately swing into action and bring him to book. He should face the full force of law.
The place of this so- called pastor and his associates is in jail.
The postmortem reports showed most of the victims had been starved to death while others were killed after being hit several times in the head by brunt objects.
No sooner Mackenzie was arrested, Interior cabinet secretary Kithure Kindiki visited the horror scene of Shakahola Massacre in Kilifi. 10 bodies were exhumed on that day.
He stated after witnessing this horror excercise. What you are seeing here could be a tip of iceberg.
The police are currently looking for another pastor and reports indicate this one is also running a cult and he has done worse crimes.
Pastor Ezekial Odero of New Life Ministries Church was arrested a few days later.
When they were arraigned in court on different dates, the two doomsday pastors faced a raft of charges including terrorism, religious radicalization, money laundering and fraud.
According to the prosecution, Mackenzie and Ezekial were close friends and preached the same doctrine of propagating ‘end time message’.
The latter’s victims were being ferried and buried in the farm owned by Mackenzie in Shakahola village.
The bodies would be moved from a Private Morgue where they being preserved.
Unconfirmed reports indicated the Morgue was owned by Ezekial and also owned ambulances and hearses.
No proper records were available for these deaths.
Ezekiel has since secured his freedom. This is after his lawyers managed to convince the judge to release him on bond or cash bail.
Mackenzie was not lucky. The police are still holding him.
Back to President Ruto, he had noted that this was a serious problem.
As a government, we need to expand the scope of dealing with it.
In the next few days, I am going to form a commission of inquiry into Mackenzie cult activities and the depth of Shakahola killings.
The President lived to his word. He also formed a Taskforce led by former secretary general of NCCK Mutava Musyimi.
The team is expected to propose legal and governance changes to prevent religious extremism.
This will be preceded by public hearings during which the members will listen, collate and collect the views of the all stakeholders.
I have heard the pastors of small Evangelical churches expressing fear that this could lead to deregistration and cancellation of licenses of the churches they own.
Recently, one of them told me. President Ruto is playing with fire. He should know he won the elections because we supported him.
Look, I run three churches and each has 100 members. How many votes are these, he posed.
So, this is our message to the President. If his intention is to interfere with our freedom of worship, he should forget our votes come in 2027. We have Raila and he can also make a good president, he added.
This pastor is a Kikuyu and one of his churches is based in Githurai.
We know that most of these churches had been founded by individuals and were being managed by man (most of them would give themselves a title of apostle) his wife and a son.
They have no cause to worry. I would not expect the government to target them perse. I’m however sure they will be required to do a proper registration.
They would only fall in trouble if it is discovered that they were misleading the flock by teaching them lessons meant to promote religious cults and extremism.
Since he assumed power, President Ruto has demonstrated he is a leader who would not cave in to blackmail, threats and intimidation. He is committed to do the right thing.
He has been reiterating. I took the oath of office to first and foremost protect the lives of Kenyans and their properties.
Luring people to join your cult and starve them to death and kill those who refuse to follow your doctrine is ungodly and evil.
It cannot be allowed in our country where the sanctity of human life is sacrosanct.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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