By Massimo Introvigne and Rosita Šorytė — Originally published in Zenit
In April 2023, media all around the world carried the news that a Kenyan religious movement they called a “cult”, led by a local pastor called Paul Mackenzie, was responsible for the death of hundreds of followers, who had starved to death, together with their children, following the instructions of their leader about a radical form of fasting.
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More than a year has passed, and what exactly happened is still not entirely clear, with hundreds of dead bodies discovered and Mackenzie continuing to plead not guilty. Obviously, if Mackenzie persuaded his followers to commit suicide — coupled with homicide if they compelled their children to join them in the fasting — he should be convicted, whatever his motivations. Instigation to suicide, and homicide, are not protected by freedom of religion or belief.
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On the other hand, a Kenyan ad hoc Senate Commission took the opportunity of the incident to produce a report on “cults” with some disturbing proposals. Released on October 10 last year, the report presented the anti-cult laws in France and the existence there of a governmental mission to combat “cultic deviances” called MIVILUDES. It also highlighted regulations introduced against “cults” in Japan after the assassination of Shinzo Abe in 2022 as “best practices” to be imitated in Kenya and indeed throughout Africa.
The report also suggested creating a crime of “psychological abuse” and probing the finances of churches and religions operating in Kenya and their leaders with the aim of reducing the tax exemption granted to religious organisations.
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After the tragedy in Kenya, similar proposals are now also heard in other African countries, including Rwanda, Uganda, Cameroon, and Gambia.
This anti-reigious freedom move is an egregious case of throwing the baby of religious liberty out with the bathwater of its abuse by those who may have used religion to commit common crimes.
Now in Kenya, a special task force established by President William Ruto in May 2023 to assess the legal and regulatory framework governing religious organisations in the country has delivered its final report. This document includes various recommendations focused on rigorously vetting and regulating the activities of religious organisations and groups within the country.
The task force, led by politician and mainline Protestant preacher Mutava Musyimi, delivered its report to Ruto on July 30. The report suggests creating a Religious Affairs Commission to evaluate all religious groups and clerics in Kenya. Musyimi insisted that most Kenyans are susceptible to religious abuse due to increasing poverty and limited knowledge of religious issues — factors that may have helped Mackenzie persuade his followers to starve.
“A poor person has no options, and religion becomes their only hope. Poverty makes it easy to fall prey to religious abuse,” Musyimi stated, noting that the report’s implementation would allow a crackdown on “deceitful” religious leaders.
Musyimi seems to support the outdated deprivation theory proposed in the past century to explain the success of Pentecostalism and new religious movements, and also used language derived from the international anti-cult movement.
The task force suggests that religious organisations should be submitted to a registration regime. When applying for registration, they should provide their bylaws detailing their faith doctrine and clearance certificates from the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
While mainline Catholic and Protestant churches (with some exceptions) support the proposal, in which they may see an opportunity to limit the competition of the booming Pentecostal groups and new religious movements, other minorities are protesting the report. A group of Pentecostal leaders from the Mount Kenya and Lower Eastern regions, known as the Gikuyu, Embu, Meru, and Akamba (GEMA) Unity Forum, oppose all the proposals. Led by their national chairperson James Munga, they argue that putting the task force report into effect will be harmful and infringes upon freedom of religion or belief. They want it to be rejected.
“We are being gagged as a Church. We don’t want the Church to be vetted and registered afresh,” Munga said, adding that any changes should be decided through a national referendum. Legal scholars also oppose the proposals as being against the Kenyan Constitution.
In Rwanda, as reported by local media and Human Rights Without Frontiers, theory has already become practice. The Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) along with other government agencies is overseeing inspections across the country to ensure faith-based organisations (FBOs) comply with national laws and regulations. By mid-August, more than 7 700 churches out of 13 000 inspected had been shut down.
Rwandan authorities claim that a church or religious place of worship can be closed if it fails to pass one of four tests. One test is about building and safety principles that look reasonable and correspon to international standards. However, we at “Bitter Winter” often receive reports that ill-founded safety arguments are used as pretexts to harass unpopular minorities — even in countries generally regarded as friendly to religious freedom, including Islamic centres in Italy.
The other three criteria are highly problematic. Government bureaucrats told media that leaders of faith-based organisations must hold academic qualifications. These leaders need a degree in religious studies from an accredited higher education institution or any other degree accompanied by a valid certificate in religious studies or related matters from a recognised institution. It was explained that “the rationale for academic qualifications is to ensure that religious leaders qualify and are capable of interpreting and delivering faith-related messages to the congregations they lead” If these criteria were applied in the United States or in many other democratic countries, the majority of places of worship of religious minorities would be shut down. The Catholic Church and some mainline Protestant churches do require that their parish priests or pastors earned academic degrees, but most other religious organisations in the US don’t.
Another criterion is that churches and other religious organisations should submit to the government their bylaws, obtain a “collaboration letter” from the authorities of the respective district, and file an “action plan”. The action plan should include not just evangelistic activities but also community initiatives. Obviously, district authorities may refuse to sign “collaboration letters” for whatever reason, thus leading to shutting down the places of worship of organisations they do not like.
Another criterion is that “each organisation must submit a statement of faith detailing its doctrines. This document is crucial for assessing whether the teachings align with national values and laws”. The authorities explained that religious liberty is guaranteed by Article 37 of the Constitution of Rwanda, but not to everybody — only to religions and movements that “do not contradict national values and standards” specified by the government. Obviously, this is a limited and bogus religious liberty, similar to the one guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution to “normal” religious activities only, with the regime reserving the right to define “normal.”
In 2018, the government of Rwanda had already conducted a similar campaign closing some 9 000 places of worship.
Cameroon has recently announced it is considering adopting a similar religious policy. Both Rwanda and Kenya have hailed the repression of the Unification Church (now called Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) and other minorities in Japan and the anti-cult legislation in France as practices that have provided inspiration to them.
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