Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya is so real that it threatens every positive gain in human rights. It is seen to have orchestrated gross human rights abuses and violations. Rev Michael Nzioki Kimindu an Anglican priest lost favor with the church for being a liberal.

“I accepted Gods calling to serve the Other Sheep that are not considered worthy before men’’, He said. His is a replica on how the men of the church treat each other when one appears to be of a divergent view.

Odinga at PAG conference

On Tuesday 22^nd the Prime Minister while addressing the Pentecostal Assembly of God (PAG) conference and Prayer meeting at City hall said. ‘’ The Church is deeply involved in provision of services like education and healthcare. So ideally, the church and state are partners’’. He said.

‘’One of the paradoxes in Kenya is that while we remain a deeply religious Nation, our public affairs rarely reflect this deep religiosity in the country’’, Mr Odinga observed.

The Prime Minister thanked the church for the critical role it plays in development of this country, but challenged religious organizations to step up efforts to address problems facing the society.

 Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya – Modern times;

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya is motivated by the worldwide competing and historic nature of divergent views and beliefs. Major and minor deviant persuasions have consistently led to formation of splinter groups. We have witnessed formation of all sorts of churches.

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya

There are two major religious persuasions; Christianity and Islamic. Other persuasions are Hinduism, Buddhists, Confucianism, Judaism, and Sikhism. Karen Armstrong in her book says that the conservative wing of this groupings have a strong preserve of religion.

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya has seen a wing of conservatives who have grouped together to form secure reactionary set ups due to emergence of embattled forms of spirituality as a response to perceived crisis.

Modernity is said to carry the baggage of eroding and eradicating religious morality, thus the emergence of Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya. The wing that was initially conservative emerged from the protestant group.

In the recent vetting process of the Chief justice and his deputy, CJ Dr Willy Mutunga was subjected to questions of morality by the fundamentalist wing of the church.

He was accused of associating with Homosexuals. His deputy Nancy Baraza was not spared either.’  ‘’Are you lesbian’’, one of the panelist asked. “Are you not going to introduce abortion on demand’’. They wondered.

 Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya – The bible is inerrant

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya (Christians), believe that the bible is inspired by God and that it is inerrant. It is not seen as a historical document which can be interpreted as otherwise. But at the same time we note the inconsistency in which religious leaders apply scriptural interpretations.

In 1909 the first publications that opposed the modernist movement was published. It came up with five Christian beliefs that will help them sustain the status quo. It was thought that due to the growth of the modernists the fundamentalists will slowly fade away but on the contrary most of them became well educated.

In the 1960’s the Catholics who were opposed to changes joined the conservative wing of the Protestants.

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya is quick to group up together on common interests like we saw in the case of CJ and his deputy.

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Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya – Rebirth of Activism

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya emerges to challenge modern social religious beliefs and practices. In this time and era in which there is a lot of outcry for the demand of social justice and human rights, this has given birth to fearless activism.

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya has created a very vocal group, on a per-capital basis –who oppose issues ranging from abortion, equal rights for homosexuals, protection for homosexuals from hate crime, sex based education in public schools etc.

In 2010 during the public hearings organized by the Constitution Review Commission to collect views for the proposed constitution, a group of religious fundamentalists emerged with a slogan ‘NO’ for the constitution citing the abortion and family clauses.

Islam fundamentalists are wrongly viewed as terrorists by the media. The vast majority of Islam fundamentalists are pious individuals who strictly follow the teachings of Mohammed; they promote regular attendance at mosques and promote the reading of the Quran.

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya – Islam Extremists

Most of them will promote the dreaded concept of theocratic form of government in which Sharia (Islam law) becomes the law of the state. Most probably view the western states as secular, ungodly, decadent and obsessed with sex.

There are those Islamic extremists which is a radical wing fueled by social, religious, and economic stressor’s in many of the Muslim countries. This is due to lack of democratic governance; autocratic unelected political leader. This eventually fuels anger, instability, unrest, distrust, hostility and feelings of victimization.

Religious Fundamentalism in Kenya is succeeding in widening the gap between forces of reason and those opposed to it.