What exactly do Kenyans want, especially where matters of faith are concerned? On one hand, we appear to be averse to people who wear religion on their sleeves and keep complaining about them. Yet, on the other, we will not let those who prefer to keep matters of their faith secret have their way!
Remember how we have been whining about leaders and other public figures who are always on worship mode, publicly and loudly and unapologetically? This has earned the country’s top leadership the accusation of practising too much religion, with now so frequent outings for men of the cloth at the house on the hill.
This has even led to the claim that the current administration is overdoing religion, shoving it right into our faces and that they even seem to be captured by these men and women of the faith. Apparently, matters of faith are now, in the words of the critics, unnecessarily and unusually over-present, in the higher echelons of power of our country.
However, it seems like it is with the secret societies that we draw the line on how public these things can be. For them, we are even asking for more, insisting that details of their faith be shoved in our faces a little more. That we are not content with the bits we have been let in and the myths and conspiracies flying around. For this, we want a taste of the goings-on that it has been associated with.
- Ambrose Rachier interview revives debate on Freemasonry
- When ‘Jah’ reference was declared devil worship in schools
- Official ‘devil worship’ inquiry indicted Freemasons
- What President Ruto discussed with outgoing CSs during cabinet meeting
Keep Reading
Freemasons
No wonder a recent television interview with a self-confessed adherent became the talk of the town, with everyone turning into an overnight expert in freemasonry, weighing in on social media, poking holes and advancing all manners of theories.
Surprisingly, we now have an appetite for others’ faiths and want to be shown a bit more and to debate how they dress, their rituals, and how they operate. In the absence of this, we are going ahead to front all manners of theories about the so-called secret societies of ladies and gentlemen?
Strange humans we are! It is too difficult to just choose whether we are interested in other people’s affairs of the faith or if they need to conduct them in private, away from our view. Perhaps this voyeurism on the secret societies is just us being our usual gossipy selves. We might just be only interested in the secret societies because not much is known about it already and curiosity and fear-of-missing-out is getting the better of us.
On the day these societies throw their doors open to the public and even have crusades and outreaches and live broadcasts of whatever they do in their secret places, we may just turn around and complain that it is now too much. That they are unnecessarily overdoing it.
Surely, isn’t freedom of thought, religion, belief, and conscience a basic right for all that is even enshrined in the supreme law of the land? Similarly, the universal declaration of human rights grants everyone the same freedom. How one worships or manifests this belief is supposed to be a personal responsibility and choice.
Personal choice
Of course, the know-it-all crowd on social media will have none of this and will assiduously dispense opinion and criticism on other people’s religious choices, even dismissing them as satanic enterprises. Others will even go ahead to attempt proselytising, in the usual belief that they are the ones doing it the proper way.
Ultimately, matters of faith are a personal choice. Whatever the motivations that get one to join and stay in a given sect or society should be no one else’s problem, unless it poses harm to others.
Irrespective of one’s station in life, it is unfair to question what they choose to believe in what they do and how they manifest it. For as long as it does not get in the way of their delivery to the public, it should be a non-issue.
So, what if it is too much, or does not operate openly or follow the script that other faiths have taken? BY THE STANDARD MEDIA