Mwangi Githahu
3 December 2001
analysis
That there is too much religion in Kenya has never been in doubt.
Freedom of religion is enshrined in our Constitution and, therefore, Kenyans are free to worship whatever they want, even the devil.
The freedom of religious worship in Kenya has actually been a good example of the tolerant nature of Kenyans, a tolerance that perhaps the political animals in our midst would do good to study and learn from.
However, that is quite a different matter. Or is it?
Of course there have been the occasional inter-faith clashes through the years. The most memorable in recent times is possibly last year's conflagration between a group of Muslims and Catholic's in Nairobi's South B area.
Begun by a misunderstanding about something other than religion, the clash ended with the fire-bombing of the Our Lady of Mercy Church, which has had to be rebuilt.
That particular incident aside, most religious faiths in Kenya tend to adopt the policy of live and live. In fact more often than not the religious groups tend to clash more amongst themselves than with each other. By this one means it is far more likely that you will see members of the same faith clashing than it is to see members of different faiths clashing.
For example, there have often been fights between members of the same mosque where some were Shia Muslims and the rest were Sunni.
There have been fights in churches, both evangelical and traditional, where the congregation has been split between different leadership personalities.
There are even two different associations amongst the Christian churches, with the evangelical churches breaking off from the National Council of Churches of Kenya to form the Evangelical Churches of Kenya.
That said, however, Kenyans, with their love for worship probably have the highest number of religious groups or sects per head of population than any other country in the world.
Most of the sects have their roots in the "traditional" religions such as Christianity and Islam, but have grown and adapted a multitude of other influences, including animist and in some extreme cases, quite ridiculous combinations of animism, Christianity, Islam and other religious beliefs.
The point, however, is that there has been freedom of religion and it has on the whole been enjoyed to the maximum by Kenyans of all colours, sexes, economic and social standing.
The religious freedom in Kenya has been such that if you decided tomorrow to form a sect that worshipped a TV cartoon character such as the Pink Panther, all you would need to do to stay within the law was to have it registered with the Registrar of Societies and that would be it.
The Holy Church of the Pink Panther would be off on it's mission to recruit followers!
There are, however, those people, and many would be considered interested parties, who have never liked or appreciated the fact that there is so much freedom of religion in Kenya.
Many people who hold this view, would never come right out in the open and say so. It might look as though they were heading an unseemly battle for converts or followers.
Imagine what it would look like if the Catholic Church was competing in the market place with the Anglicans, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Sunni Muslims, The Shias, the Ismailis, The Jews, The Sikhs and Buddhists etc.
Of course, as we all know, though few are willing to admit, this is exactly the situation, especially with the two main evangelical groups, the Christians and the Muslims.
The more converts they can draw from other faiths, the better.
But once again, it would be too unseemly to be seen pushing the buttons themselves and so they use their proxies to do their dirty work.
In some cases their method is so subtle that those being used to do the work do not even know it. The big religions are experts in the subtle art of suggestion.
On November 28, Kenyan MPs made a move that could end up being the beginning of the end of religious freedom in Kenya.
They passed a Motion in Parliament that could be seen in some quarters as an unconstitutional crackdown on the growth industry that is religion in Kenya.
While it is too early to tell if any of the members of the big two religions in Kenya, the mainstream Christians or the Muslims or even both, are behind the parliamentary move, it is no secret that they are secretly hoping the Motion becomes a Bill and is voted through into law as soon as possible.
It would clear the decks of competition for converts and reduce the options for "dissidents". This would in turn ensure that the main churches could exert more control over the faithful.
The parliamentarians may have meant well by bringing in the Motion. They claimed it would protect the interests of the people as they said some people had turned religion into big business, and therefore required regulation to safeguard, amongst other things, state security, social norms and morality. According to the MPs, some religious groups were promoting wayward behaviour and should be vetted before registration.
This may all be very well and true, but once again we must remember that the Constitution grants Kenyans freedom of religion and to tamper with this would be to mess about with a fundamental constitutional freedom.
Also, MPs are voted in to do a number of specific things, such as passing legislation and helping in the governance of the country, however, I don't recall them being chosen as the protectors of the nation's morals.
This is very dangerous ground that our political leaders are treading on, and I would advise them to be very careful that they don't, in their new found zeal to protect our morals etc., curb our constitutional right to freedom of worship.
This could be the thin end of the wedge.
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