Devil worship exists in Kenya - commission says
The Nation, August 4, 1999
Nairobi - The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the cult of Devil Worship in Kenya has established that devil worship does exist in the country.
The commission therefore recommended the setting up of a special police force to investigate occultic crimes.
Chaired by Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima of Nyeri archdiocese, the commission's report indicates that a majority of those who presented their views believed the cult of devil worship exists in Kenya.
"All the people who confessed to have been involved in devil worship live, work or study in different parts of Kenya and belong to various ethnic groups," the report said.
The report also added that there was a lot of convergence in the details given by devil worshippers.
"The witnesses had unshakable confidence in what they said despite the mind control techniques applied in initiating them to devil worship," the report said.
The presence of scars, tattoos and other marks on the bodies of the former members of the cult which they showed to the commission members confirmed that they had been members of the cult.
Various forms of paraphernalia were found in their possession. Some also spoke of use of symbols, signs, and codes for communication purposes.
The report said the symbols included a horned hand, the swastika, the upside down pentagram with a goat head sign, Satan's international symbol of pride; human skulls, figure 666, the snake, scorpion and magic of witchcraft, among others.
The commissioners said they had observed that there was a category of people who are generally suspected to be devil worshippers, but they denied the fact.
"They seemed to use every trick to convince the commission that they were not in fact devil worshippers," they said.
The report therefore asserted: "From all the evidence presented, the commission is of the opinion that the cult of devil worship exists in Kenya both in the learning institutions and the society."
The commission concluded that because of the minute details in the stories (of devil worship) and their consistency, they must have been true.
"The people who made the allegations were from all the provinces of Kenya and, they could not, therefore, have colluded to make the same allegations," they said.
They therefore said that the allegations of devil worship should be taken seriously because they emanated from a cross-section of the society including pastors, senior administration and education officials, senior politicians, civic leaders, heads of institutions and students.
The report said that some of the channels that could lead to the cult include the matatu (communal taxi) culture and music, the golfing society, Freemasonry, and transcendental meditation.
