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Former house of torture in Kenya to undergo spiritual cleansing
2003-055-3
3/12/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Religious leaders in Kenya are planning to perform a cleansing ceremony at a building in the capital where secret torture chambers were discovered last month. Leaders of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian churches told ENI they needed to spiritually purge Nyayo House, a 24-storey building in Nairobi's city center, of the acts of cruelty practiced under its roof in the 1980s and 1990s.
Hundreds of people, including university students and lecturers, artists, politicians and journalists, are believed to have been interrogated and tortured in 12 tiny cells in the basement of the building. They were considered a threat to the government of Daniel arap Moi, who was president of Kenya for a quarter of a century until leaving office in December.
'We shall be disintegrating the evil spirits that were responsible for the torturing of the people. We believe that the torturers were possessed,' said the Rev. Peter Machira of St Mark's Anglican Church in Nairobi. 'We want to do this so that the chambers can be used for another useful purpose.'
The new government opened the building to the public last month, and torture survivors have been visiting the little cells, tearfully reliving their torments. Although they describe frightening scenes reminiscent of accounts of the Gulag in the former Soviet Union, some survivors say they have forgiven those responsible for the torture.
The building now houses the Nairobi Provincial Administration.
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