Over the last decade Kenya has been seeing a lively debate over the regulation of its ever-expanding religious market and demands for a new ‘Churches Law’. Tales of hypocritical abuse of power and of emerging cults coalesced with security concerns regarding religious extremism, leading to the proposal to tighten regulatory control over the religious market, which expanded rapidly since the 1990s. Despite widespread recognition of the problem, new legislative steps have failed so far, notably even leading to a controversial 2014 moratorium on the registration of new religious denominations. This article analyzes this legislative impasse and offers an explanation in terms of the ambivalent yet symbiotic relations between religion and state in Kenya.

在过去的十年中，肯尼亚一直在激烈辩论其不断扩大的宗教市场的监管以及对新“教会法”的要求。虚伪滥用权力和新兴邪教的故事与对宗教极端主义的安全担忧相结合，导致提议加强对自 1990 年代以来迅速扩张的宗教市场的监管控制。尽管这个问题得到了广泛认可，但迄今为止新的立法措施都以失败告终，尤其是导致 2014 年有争议的暂停新宗教教派的注册。本文分析了这一立法僵局，并对肯尼亚宗教与国家之间矛盾而又共生的关系进行了解释。