RAILA:I BLAME UHURU ON TOUGH CHURCH LAWS

Cord leader Raila Odinga has criticised the President for ordering the review of proposed religion laws saying he chaired the Cabinet meeting that discussed them.
The Attorney General and the Communications Authority proposed the rules aimed at deterring religious groups from swindling the public, money laundering and terrorism.
"The AG gets instructions from the Cabinet which is chaired by the President Uhuru Kenyatta. He cannot come around to order the AG to negotiate with religious leaders yet he chaired the meeting," Raila said.
The Opposition leader accused Uhuru of being "dishonest about religion woes" and "encroaching on the lives of Kenyans" through the proposed laws.
"The state has no business regulating how people decide to worship, with whom or where. If religious people go against the law, they should be treated like all other Kenyans," he said.
During a press conference at Capitol Hill in Nairobi on Wednesday, Raila said clerics cannot be separated from the rest of the public and specific rules applied to them.
"If a pastor carried out fraud, it is not special fraud. Why are we setting special rules for pastors? If people decide to give the church or their pastors money, the state has no business telling them that they cannot," he said.
Religions and churches are founded on people’s charity and "to kill charity is to kill religion and the church", he said, and added it encompasses a calling.
"Religious leadership is a gift. You cannot train people into religious inspiration. Taxing the church is double taxation. It is like taxing harambees. The money going to the church has already been taxed," he said.
The Cord leader said the requirement in the new law, for religious associations to be registered, infringes upon the right to worship.
He said registration should be reserved for associations seeking to operate as recognised institutions.
Raila further said the government has enough problems to deal with and should not "invent" new ones.
"There is no need to fix what is working. There is no crisis in the church today. There is no need for the intervention of the state," he said.
Raila noted that the approach to religion is that the state must keep off religious affairs; article 8 of the constitution states "there shall be no state religion".
Article 32 (2) says "every person has the right, either individually or in community with others, in public or in private, to manifest any religion or belief through worship, practice, teaching or observance, including observance of a day of worship".
On Tuesday, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka said the Jubilee government does not respect the freedom of worship in Kenya.
In a statement from Europe, Kalonzo condemned the government for the "sustained curtailing of freedoms guaranteed in the constitution".
Officials of more than 200 churches in Nyeri county opposed the laws saying fraudster preachers should be jailed but the freedom of worship maintained.