by By Alex Shianda
The high school I attended used to conduct several impromptu searches on students. I remember one particular inspection by the school’s administration where they were looking for devil worshippers. I don’t recall if they had a checklist for how a devil worshipper was supposed to look like, but the teachers meticulously checked the contents of our desks, including the writings on them, our text books and exercise books, and love letters drafts.
As teens deep in our adolescence, most of us loved rap, reggae or Lingala music. We would express our love for the culture by writing lyrics to our favourite songs and artwork associated with it. On this inspection day, one of my friends was suspected of being a devil worshipper because he had a Wu-Tang clan symbol on his books and desks. I was tickled and angered in equal measure. This teacher was about to have a student expelled from school because of ignorance of hip hop culture.
A few months after this, my friends and I started performing contemporary Christian music in the school chapel. One day during assembly, the vice captain of the Christian Union announced that we were engaging in worldliness in the church. He said our genre of music was tarnishing the name of God. As a result of his pronouncement, my friends and I were not allowed to perform any presentation during Sunday chapel gatherings. This vice Chapel Captain went further to instruct Christian Union leaders to investigate our conduct.
Was it his distaste of contemporary Christian music? Maybe it was scepticism of our salvation like the early believers were of Paul after his conversion.
I recalled this when I read in the media that the Kenya government wants to implement a report on devil worship presented in 1995 to the then president Daniel Moi. As a millennial, I was too young to be fully aware of this commission of inquiry led by Bishop Nicodemus Kirima. Their report was presented in August 1999 to Parliament. It was titled, ‘The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Devil Worship’.
The US State Department summarized the report this way: “President Moi appointed the Commission in 1994 in response to public concern, articulated chiefly by Christian clergy, about a perceived resurgence of witchcraft, ritual murders, and other ostensibly “Satanic” practices associated with aspects of traditional indigenous religions. The Commission’s widely-publicized report included numerous reports of ritual murder, human sacrifice, and cannibalism, and feats of magic allegedly done by using powers acquired through such acts. It also reported that “Satanists” had infiltrated non-indigenous religious groups including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), and the Church of Christ Scientist (Christian Scientists), as well as other organizations, including the Masonic Order (Freemasons) and the Theosophical Society, making them “doorways” to Satanism. Most members of the Commission were senior members of mainline Christian churches; a deputy director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) also served on the Commission.”
It is not surprising President William Ruto wants to adopt this report today. On April 3, 2000, President Ruto was the then Assistant Minister in the Office of the President. An archive article says of him: “Speaking after the discovery of “cult” killings in Uganda, he was quoted as saying that the government would crack down on religious groups that endanger the safety of their adherents.”
In the wake of the tragedy that was Shakahola, a cult that left more than 400 people starved to death, including children, I agree that the government should protect the lives of Kenyans. But seeking to regulate religion with a report that was done 20 years before we got a new Constitution is counterproductive. Article 32 of our present day Constitution upholds the freedom of conscience, religion, belief and and offers sufficient protection without leaving room for abuse.
It states:
(1) Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.
(2) Every person has the right, either individually or in community with others, in public or in private, to manifest any religion or belief through worship, practice, teaching or observance, including observance of a day of worship.
(3) A person may not be denied access to any institution, employment or facility, or the enjoyment of any right, because of the person’s belief or religion.
(4) A person shall not be compelled to act, or engage in any act, that is contrary to the person’s belief or religion.
To, therefore, say that a group of people who have organized themselves as Satanists, an occult or a cult (as long as they are not infringing on other people’s rights) will be deregistered as the report recommended in the 1990s is abusing our present Constitution which offers those protections.
Bishop Kirima’s report proposed the establishment of a national body of experts who “should have a machinery to monitor the activities of the societies and should any be found to promote satanic practices, it should be deregistered.” This recommendation reminded me of the clueless teacher in my high school who was not familiar with the Wu-Tang clan label and almost got my friend expelled for being a devil worshipper yet he was not. There are so many questions about the “expert-ness” of these people. How will they identify and deal with personal bias? What makes them experts — Is it experiential knowledge or academic knowledge? When do they stop being “experts”?
To answer this, the report said the experts were professionals (whatever this means), lawyers, social scientists and the clergy. These “experts” were to prepare a national moral code of conduct that “would regulate and govern the conduct of Kenyans, especially those in leadership.”
This recommendation has also been overtaken by time because our Constitution clearly outlines this.
Another key recommendation from the report was the establishment of a security agency that would assist in the identification of occultic crimes. This too has been overtaken by time.
What we should do is uphold article 32 of our Constitution and not implement old reports.
For the Christians, since the intent to implement Bishop Kirima’s report was made, I have seen malicious comments by parishioners toward other churches unlike theirs and in the selfish ambition to take over churches from unlearned ministers as they belittle pastors who have no the academic theologically training yet are faithfully serving people. There have been outbursts of anger towards other non-Christian groups who have been branded as killers. And seeds of dissension have been sown by some leaders towards some churches in Kenya, with a call to deregister the churches.
When we consider Paul’s words to Galatians, “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.”(Galatians 5:13 NLT), God is expecting us to serve others. We cannot be believers and be hostile to others who are unlike us. The way of cross is to see the power of God, with Jesus hanging on the cross. The cross is a visual reminder for us to love those who are unlike us. Christ forgave those who crucified him. Stephen forgave those who stoned him to death. Loving those who are unlike us is not endorsing them. It is refusing to satisfy our sinful nature that wants us to quarrel amongst ourselves instead of going about doing good, like Jesus.
When we use our freedom to do good then we nail the passions of our sinful self to the cross. We don’t become envious of other people — we are focussed on serving them. We don’t provoke other people with generalised alarmists comments about denominations and organisations. We pacify extremists. We neither endorse falsehoods or act conceited. We instead demonstrate the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
As spirit-led, and spirit-filled people, we live free knowing we cannot do anything good left to ourselves.
Alex Shianda is the author of “Celebrating Christ“.
