When President picked insiders to clean up religious sector mess

Rev Mutava Musyimi presents a report to President William Ruto at State House, Nairobi, on July 30, 2024. [File, Standard]

In a classical case of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, President William Ruto deployed religious institution figureheads to straighten up the mess of their own rogue sector.

Prayed into victory by church leaders, but under pressure from the people to act against rogue religious leaders, Ruto opted for the political masterstroke of flooding the taskforce with the who in who in Kenya’s religious leadership.

At the apex was the former boss of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), Rev Mutava Musyimi. An impressive former preacher at Nairobi Baptist Church, Rev Musyimi's political profile rose when he was mentioned as a potential “compromise” presidential candidate for the opposition side in the 1997 presidential election.

He would later in 2007, successfully contest for Gachoka parliamentary seat. The pinnacle of his political success was becoming the chair of the parliamentary Lands and Environment Committee. In 2012, his ambitions to run for the presidency died as soon as they were declared.

Other prominent members of the Commission included Vice Chair Sheikh Abdisalam Mohamed who is a Muslim cleric, Bishop Mark Kariuki of Deliverance Church, Bishop (Dr) Eli Rop of Full Gospel Church, Archbishop Maurice Muhatia of the Catholic Church and Bishop Philip Kitoto of Kenya Assemblies of God, and Bishop Amos Lewa of Joy Fellowship Ministries.

Others were Dr Faridun Abdallah, Dr Alphonce Kanga of NCCK, Muslim cleric Amb Mohamad Dori, Sujurtha Kotamraju of Hindu Council of Kenya, Khalende Wabwire, Mary Awuor Kitegi, Leah Kasera, Nancy Murega, Joseph Talian, and Wilson Wanyanga.

The President supplied the otherwise lopsided Commission with the legal minds of Prof Musili Wambua who teaches at the University of Nairobi, Judy Thongori a family law practitioner and former Law Society of Kenya official Charles Kanjama to balance the scales.

A veteran of presidential task forces, Musili was a member of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC), chaired a taskforce on review of maritime laws, chaired the Betting Control Board, and is presently the chancellor of Embu University.

President Ruto appointed Dr Martin Ndiwa Talian and Maria Goretti Nyariki as the Joint Secretaries to the task force.

From the framing of their terms of reference, it was clear that the President had done half of the work for them. He wanted them to identify the legal, institutional, and governance gaps that have allowed religious extremist organisations, sects, cults, and other similar outfits to thrive.

Ruto required them to craft proposals on the legal, institutional, and governance changes required to prevent religious extremism, as well as laws to enable the concerned law enforcement agencies to more effectively tackle religious extremism crimes.

He also wanted them to design proposals on civic education and additions to educational curricula sensitising Kenyans on identifying, avoiding, or leaving religious extremist organisations, sects, cults, and other similar outfits.

The President asked the team to come up with a mechanism for the public to report religious extremist, cultic or occultist beliefs and practices in their local communities, formulate proposals on standards and minimum certification requirements for all religious organisations, a framework for regulation, annual reporting, compliance, monitoring, and enforcement action applicable to all religious organisations.

When they began their sittings, the group unbundled and grouped themselves into four working thematic areas comprising legal, institutional and governance framework, education and civic awareness, reporting mechanism and enforcement actions, and minimum standards and certification requirements.

The team went around the country conducting public hearings but toured Rwanda, UK, the US and Uganda for benchmarking. The team received 398 hard copy submissions, and 149 electronically submitted materials, all totalling to 547 submissions.