The Union has told the government to treat the recent Shakahola massacre as an eye opener in protecting children.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has urged the government to fully enforce the recently enacted Children’s Act to protect children from the emerging religious cult activities.
While condemning the recent revelation of cultic activities at Shakahola village in Kilifi County, where children were forced to fast to death to ‘meet Jesus’, the Union Secretary General (SG) Collins Oyuu stated that government agencies directly involved in child protection such as the Kenya police, the Children’s Department, regional and county administrations, and any other government entity, must treat the Shakahola massacre as an eye opener.
Oyuu said other than the obvious sexual offences, forced child labour and child neglect, there are other serious and life-threatening crimes against children.
“The Children’s Act No. 29 of 2022 is an Act of Parliament that gives effect to Article 53 of the Constitution; to make provision for children rights, parental responsibility, alternative care of children including guardianship, and foster care placement and adoption,” said Oyuu.
According to Oyuu, the law provides that all judicial and administrative institutions, as well as persons acting in the name of such institutions, have to treat the interests of the child as the first and paramount consideration in their line of duty.
“In the case of Shakahola, the parents are squarely in the middle of responsibility under the provisions of Article 53 of our Constitution, yet they led their children into an open deathtrap,” said Oyuu.
Pointing out that cults prey on people’s fears and lusts such as poverty, sickness, pain or love, power and money, he regretted how the parents could be duped by the charisma of the cult leaders that completely controlled their minds to the point of sacrificing their children who had complete trust in them.
“Detectives looking into the Shakahola cult murders have found that most of the bodies exhumed from the mass graves in the area belonged to minors,” said Oyuu.
When the government moved to court in early May seeking another 90 days to detain Mackenzie, who has been accused of orchestrating the deaths of hundreds at his Malindi Shakahola farm, State lawyers had reason to believe that children and women were coerced or violently forced to starve to death.
“Corroborating evidence by experts shows that children and women were coerced or violently forced to starve to death to hasten their death as a consequence of radical religious ideology,” said State lawyer Alex Jamii.
Over 300 bodies have so far been exhumed from the shallow graves dug in the farm, with autopsy reports conducted by Chief Government Pathologist Dr. Johansen Oduor confirming that most of the victims are children and women.
“After the discovery, a look into his teachings disclosed cultic tendencies that plunged people into death. In one of his teachings, Mackenzie explained that children should not be an obstacle in advancing the spread of the gospel,” said Oyuu.
He affirmed that the union supports the work of UNICEF, World Vision, and other organizations that focus on children’s rights through research, artwork and advocacy.
He said their goals are to have children recognized as individuals with human rights, to build a collective effort to protect and defend their rights, and to seek justice for their rights violations.
By Roy Hezron
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
