Team wants 30-year old 'devil worship report' implemented

Rev Mutava Musyimi. [File, Standard]

The presidential task force on religious organisations wants a report commissioned 30 years ago to investigate the prevalence of devil worship in Kenya implemented.

In the recommendations now sitting in President William Ruto’s office, the task force chaired by Rev Mutava Musyimi said the report handed to former President Daniel arap Moi affirmed that the “the cult of devil worship existed” and that the target groups were youth and the poor.

The report was prepared by a Presidential Commission of Inquiry chaired by the late Catholic Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima. It was appointed as a committee on October 21, 1994, elevated into a Commission of Inquiry on March 1, 1995, and handed over its report in June 1995.

Musyimi’s taskforce now says some of the key recommendations of the Kirima report like the formation of a special police unit to investigate occult crimes, sensitization of the public and increased surveillance on learners are still relevant.

“Despite the Commission completing its task, and submitting its report to the President, the report was neither made public nor the recommendations therein implemented,” Mutava’s taskforce said.

The Devil Commission report had flagged Maria Aoko of Legio Maria, Elijah Masinde founder of ‘Dini ya Musambwa’, Reverend Moon of the Unification Church, Mary Akatsa of Jerusalem Church as some of Kenya’s cult leaders of the time.

It also fingered the Hare Krishna, The Moonies (Unification Church), The Church of God of Prophecy, The Church of the Living Word, Legio Maria, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Freemasons and Theosophy as some of the “common cults” in Kenya.

“In Kenya, where egoistic tendencies seem to be prevalent, and where the disregard for moral principles is apparent, the majority, especially the youth and the less advantaged are easily attracted by an outpouring of attention and affection; the so-called love-bombing technique employed by the cult,” the report stated.

 Just like Mutava’s, the Kirima team said cultic tendencies are enhanced by sensory deprivation, extreme amounts of physical activity coupled with fatigue, severance of all ties with family and friends and the forsaking of all material possessions.

“In a short time, the recruit becomes emotionally and spiritually dependent on the cult for decisions, direction and even the physical necessities of life. Finally, his mind ‘snaps’ and the sudden, drastic alteration of personality in all its many forms takes place,” the report said.

In a detailed discussion, the Kirima Commission ranked satanic cults prevalent in Kenya at the time in four different groups; the traditional ones, organised religious, self-styled and occult ones.

The traditional Satanists included “very influential people in the society such as politicians, military leaders, professionals, such as medical doctors, educators, and wealthy business people.”

The self-styled ones, or the “dabbles” are largely the youth who tended to appreciate anything that proved to be different from what was taken to be normal values. The Commission cited the celebration of Halloween, tattooing of bodies, back-masking music, popularity of reggae, rock and roll music, matatu culture and Rastafarian influence as some of the evidence of satanic worship.

In the accounts reproduced in the report, satanic cult recruits confessed to drinking human blood, eating human flesh, astral travelling and nude worshipping. Testimonies were given to the effect that the Freemasons had underground factories.

Rev Mutava’s taskforce wants not only the Devil Worship Commission report fully implemented, but also two other subsequent national reports touching on religion. These are the Report of the Committee to Review the Societies Act and the recent report on the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.