One of the things you can never argue and win with a Kenyan is a topic about religion. You can only choose to be a believer or a non-believer. And yes, if you don’t subscribe to some people’s religious ideologies, you will be branded a sinner.

But what has religion not done for Kenyans and Africa as a whole? If you view it from an expert point of view, you’ll understand that religion is the biggest disease ailing Africa.

Many churches are not holy places anymore; they are businesses where the language of money dominates more than biblical teachings. Pastors use all kinds of tactics to milk money from their congregants.

They quote a few bible verses of how the poor widow gave everything she had. They’ll tell you how 10 percent of your income doesn’t belong to you, and you’re stealing from God by keeping it. These tactics are to guilt trip you into giving away your hard-earned finances.

Money aside, we’re not new to stories where pastors ask women for sexual favors in return for spiritual intervention. Videos often circulate on social media showing how some pastors pray for their congregants while touching their fundamental body parts. Don’t mention fake miracles showing people standing directly from wheelchairs or even the dead resurrecting.

Pastor praying for a woman

These stories only leave us with one question; how can sane people allow themselves to be used like that? The answer is simple: religious fanatism.

Religious Fanatism and the Damage It Has Done to Kenyans

If there’s one freedom that has been abused in Kenya, it’s the freedom to worship. People have gone to dangerous lengths to exercise this freedom. They have exercised their faith and beliefs in completely unreasonable ways.

The story about Shakahola took the media waves by storm earlier last year. Paul Mackenzie, let’s not give him the ‘pastor’ title, was accused of religious radicalization back in 2017, only to be released back to society in 2021. During his earlier arrest, parents had accused him of advocating for their children not to go to school.

Pastor Paul Mackenzie

After he was released, Mackenzie was again back in the limelight in early 2023. This time, the story was extremely terrifying.

Everything began with a family looking for their two missing children. A simple search for the children led to the discovery of hundreds of shallow mass graves with 600 people missing. This was later to be called a massacre in Shakahola.

Mackenzie gave his congregants a false hope of Christianity, getting them to fast to death. People came from all over Kenya, some from Kisumu and Kakamega all the way to Malindi, where the fake pastor even gave them land. Some believers sold their property back home, abandoned their careers, and cut off family ties to join the pastor.

Mackenzie made his congregants believe that fasting to death was their way of achieving eternal life and meeting Jesus. The fasting started with children, who were denied food and water until they breathed their last. Parents followed suit, fasting for days until their bodies couldn’t handle it anymore.

Shakahola mass graves being exhumed 

Dating from April last year to date, more than 400 bodies have been exhumed from Shakahola, with scores still missing. How much harm did the preacher manage to cause within just two years?

While the Shakahola case is regarded as the worst form of religious extremism ever witnessed in Kenya, it’s just another example of how Kenyans have become gullible to religion. Many are highly brainwashed by the so-called ‘men of God’ and are unable to make sound decisions.

These people are not ready to listen to any advice and become extremely defensive if you question their religious ideologies. Kenyan and the entire Africa still have a long way to go as far as Christianity and religion are concerned.