Children rescued from a cult church in Migori County have been put under the care of children officers, the Government has said.
Migori County Commissioner Kisilu Mutua said that children are innocent people who should be protected by the State when their parents mislead them.
“We have placed them in the custody of our government children’s officers to take care of them as their parents will be investigated to tell us what they are thinking about their children as schools reopen next week,” he said.
The Commissioner was speaking in response to the recent incident where 57 worshippers of St Joseph’s Messiah Mission of Africa in the Kamagambo area of Rongo Sub-county were arrested with their children over failure to go to the hospital for treatment whenever they fell sick because they claimed that they would violate their way of beliefs.
Trouble started when one of the believers, who was a soldier attached to the GSU, died mysteriously and was hurriedly buried on the church compound.
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His relatives demanded that the body be exhumed, and a misunderstanding ensued that attracted police intervention.
The Commissioner sent the police and health officers to the church and found that they were operating illegally without any proof of certification; instead, they showed a certificate from a registered company whose directors were unknown.
Health reports showed that the place was unfit for social gatherings because it was swampy. The people gathered in an old house, which they called a church, as all people, young and of both sexes, shared one latrine pit.
“We are holding 57 people; when you turn a church into a burial ground, and you don’t go for medical check-ups, it tells a lot,” he said.
The Commissioner said that when they took the suspects to the hospital, they turned hostile to the doctors who demanded that they be discharged to prevent them from disturbing other patients in the hospital and were taken to Rongo police cells.
When they were given relief food at the police station, they refused and demanded to be given ugali.
The Commissioner, who addressed the press at Rongo town, said that the worshipers were released to go home to reunite with their families, but they refused.
He said that the suspects, except children, would be arraigned in court to answer why they were operating in a cult that jeopardised people’s lives.
Mutua, who expressed fear that the affected children would return to school soon, asked the police to investigate the matter, compile it, and present it to his office for quick legal proceedings that would show a way forward for the affected children.
He said the church had been closed temporarily to pave the way for an uninterrupted police investigation.
By Enock Okong’o
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