The government has introduced a new permit for professional employees of religious organizations across the country that directs them to pay Sh120, 000 fee annually.

Out of the Sh120, 000, Sh100, 000 covers the issuance of the permit for a period of one year and the remaining Sh20, 000 acts as the cost of processing the document.

According to a Gazette Notice by Acting Interior CS Musalia Mudavadi, the new directive will only apply to workers at a religious or charity organization who do not take part in the organization’s main activity.

“Considering that this category of staff used to be issued with class ‘I’ work permits before, it is felt that introducing a new class and charging less fee than that of class ‘D’ work permit will bring quiet in the religious sector,” Mudavadi says in his communique to the media.

“A person who is a member of a prescribed profession and working for a Religious or charitable organization and who is not involved in preaching or the conduct of religious worship and rituals and whose presence in Kenya will be of benefit to Kenya,” the Gazette Notice reads in part.

The institution must also be registered under the society’s Act, CS Mudavadi says.

According to the CS, initially, doctors, teachers, pilots and other professionals working for religious organizations have been getting class ‘D’ work permits.

However, when the government reviewed the work permit fees for class ‘D’ upwards from Sh 400,000 to Sh1,000,000, majority of the players felt aggrieved.

“Organizations including but not limited to the Catholic church, African Inland Church, the Seventh Day Adventist Church raised serious complaints that the fees are too high,” Mudavadi explains.

He adds, “When the fees were reviewed, teachers from the Rift Valley Academy – run by the AIC – Church, doctors from Kijabe Mission Hospital, and doctors from Tenwek Hospital in Bomet submitted applications for Class ‘I’ for their teachers and doctors.

The said changes come at a time when there is a strained relationship between the church and the government after a section of members of the clergy called out President William Ruto’s regime for its shortcomings.

Religious leaders from the Catholic Church, ACK and other evangelism churches turned down some of the donations from politicians, urging them to deliver their promises to the electorate.