Police in Kisii County on Monday, May 22, apprehended a bishop following reports that he defrauded his congregation through false pretense that he would secure Visas to travel abroad for employment.
In a statement, the National Police Service (NPS) described the suspect as a bishop who claimed to be the General Overseer of PEFA Church in the County.
Further, the suspect is said to have deceived the congregants who contributed a total of Ksh1.48 million to the bishop.
However, the scam was unearthed by a group of youth who tipped the police about the bishop’s unorthodox dealings and money-minting schemes.
The suspect is currently in police custody pending arraignment in court.
According to the Constitution, fraud is a common law tort of deceit whose ingredients are a false representation of a false fact with the intention that the other party should act on it and that party suffers damage.
The government has been cracking down on religious leaders propagating false teachings. President William Ruto affirmed that a framework was being developed in conjunction with spiritual leaders to tame unscrupulous pastors.
“I will consult all religious leaders in the country to have a task force to weed out the characters who want to abuse religion or to run businesses and do things that are anti-religion in Kenya.
“We want to provide a framework agreed upon with our religious leaders. A framework that will provide for self-regulation so that churches and spiritual leaders can have a mechanism where they can point to government those who want to abuse religion for other purposes,” the Head of State announced on April 30, 2023.
He referenced the Shakahola massacre whereby over 230 bodies were exhumed inside the land suspected to be owned by controversial pastor Paul Mackenzie.
“We are Christians who believe in God. There are those who use religion to destroy other people and also other destructive means.
“To ensure that what happened in Shakahola will never happen again, we are forming a Judicial Commission of Inquiry so that we can get to the bottom of what really happened in Shakahola with (pastor Paul) Mackenzie and all his collaborators,” he stated.
Days later, the president appointed Court of Appeal Judge Justice Jessie Lessit to lead the commission.
The move was, however, curtailed after Justice Lawrence Mugambi stopped any further sittings by the commission pending a ruling to be issued on Monday, May 29, on whether the commission would continue with its mandate.
