Why we need protection from pulpit swindlers

Victor Kanyari of Salvation Healing Ministry in Nairobi. He has been under the spotlight for scamming his followers. PHOTO | FILE 

By CAROLINE MUGO

In Summary

• When there is clear financial exploitation within freedom of worship, law enforcers should be involved.

When the Bernie Madoff scam first hit the international media in 2008, little prepared the world for the shocking statistics that followed.

More than $20 billion had been lost from more than 50,000 victims (Kenyans included) spread in more than 100 countries. It made history as one of the biggest Ponzi scams ever. But this is old news.

Much more recently, tens of our own home-grown pyramid schemes have been exposed. The likes of CLIP and Sasanet left scores of people with permanent financial scars.

Step back a month ago and enter the seed takers on the ever-mutating game of conmanship. Instead of selling investment plans, it is miracles that are up for sale.

In these transactions, you don’t “invest money”, you “plant a seed”. But then again, regardless of the name of the game, the victims ultimately lose money.

As the metaphor goes “like sheep to the slaughter”, it was shocking to watch an entire church led astray by one man, to their financial detriment.

One could say that literacy, especially financial literacy, is what is lacking from those who fall victim to pyramid schemes and seed pastors. Others would blame greed.

That may be so, in the case of a single victim. But when hundreds, even thousands, are duped simultaneously by a single person, there must be another force at play altogether.

Over-riding all common sense and human intuition, the herd mentality is the single greatest driver of people falling victim to fraudsters. The thinking that we are too many and, therefore, we cannot possibly all be wrong, has allowed the proliferation of seed takers and religious fraudsters.

It is mainly the lowest economic levels of our society that are affected most by the herd mentality. They are the least empowered to think against the grain. They will naively follow each other into a situation and feed off each other’s presence as a form consolation. 

This is the one thing a scammer can always rely on for perpetuation of their scams. They know they do not need to reach everyone; just a few. The crowd will do the rest and to strengthen their confidence even more, they will go out and win more souls for such a scammer to his obvious delight.

The need for a better life is the second most compelling reason why people fall victim to scams. Once again this is not to be confused with greed. There are people who are not greedy but who fall victim to these scams.

Scammers have mastered the art of conjuring up in people intense feelings of having a better life. A promise of better health and freedom from certain struggles make for the best pitch.

Desperation

In our world, there are many horrors, injustices, disappointments and setbacks. About 70 per cent of Kenyans live below the bread line