Kenya - Multiple members of Good News International Church exhumed from mass grave, leader Paul Makenzie Nthenge in custody - Malindi, April 2023

[ifindedout]

Number likely to change.

Kenya cult deaths: 47 bodies found in investigation into 'starvation cult'

A preacher in custody allegedly told followers to starve themselves in order to "meet Jesus".

www.bbc.com

Kenyan police have exhumed 47 bodies near the coastal town of Malindi, as they investigate a preacher said to have told followers to starve to death.

The bodies of children were among the dead. Police said exhumations are ongoing.

The shallow graves are in Shakahola forest, where 15 members of the Good News International Church were rescued last week.

Church leader, Paul Makenzie Nthenge is in custody, pending a court appearance.

State broadcaster KBC described him as a "cult leader", and reported that 58 graves have so far been identified.

Mods please move thread if necessary.

 

[vls12345]

58 bodies discovered during cult investigation of Kenyan pastor who allegedly told followers to fast to death in order to "meet Jesus"

Police were told there were dozens of shallow graves spread across Paul Makenzi's farm and digging started on Friday.

www.cbsnews.com

More than 50 bodies have been found so far on land owned by a pastor in coastal Kenya who was arrested for telling his followers to fast to death. Authorities had recovered at least 58 bodies from mass graves, Reuters reported Monday, citing the country's police chief.

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A tipoff from members of the public led police to raid the pastor's property in Malindi, where they found 15 emaciated people, including the four who later died. The followers said they were starving on the pastor's instructions in order to "meet Jesus."

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Makenzi was on a hunger strike for the past four days while in police custody. He has since been released on bail of 100,000 Kenyan shillings ($700).

The pastor has been arrested twice before, in 2019 and in March of this year, in relation to the deaths of children. Each time, he was released on bond, and both cases are still proceeding through the court.

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[LadyL]

73 deaths now

 

[vls12345]

Kenya starvation cult: The unbearable stench of mass graves

Dozens of bodies of people who are thought to have starved themselves are uncovered in a forest.

www.bbc.com

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About 14 mass graves have so far been dug up and Hussein Khalid has spent the past four days watching people exhume dozens of bodies.

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The final count could be much higher as the Red Cross has said that said 112 people have been reported missing. Mr Khalid estimates that there are around 60 mass grave sites in the area and only a fifth of those have been examined.

Police say that 29 survivors have been found so far, but it seems that not all of them wanted to be rescued, so convinced they were about what they were told about the end of the world.

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Victor Kaudo from the Malindi Community Human Rights Centre, which is helping exhume the bodies, says he thinks there are about 150 bodies. He said his organisation had been contacted by a whistleblower who wanted help rescuing his three children.

"It was quite unfortunate because we only rescued one whom we found in a house, tied with a rope," he told the BBC.

"And this kid we believe to be six years of age. But his sister and brother were already dead and they had been buried the previous day before we got there."

Beyond the forest itself, there is shock in the country over how dozens of people could have willingly starved themselves to death.

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Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki has called what happened a "massacre".

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[vls12345]

Information about the beginning of this group (founded 20 years ago):

Malindi cult - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[vls12345]

Death toll from Shakahola massacre rises to 73

Police believe some of the followers could have started murdering their colleagues after news of their activities began spreading.

nation.africa

 

[HMSHood]

Got shades of Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. 778 followers were killed on March 17, 2000. There is People's Temple, which claimed 914 lives on November 18, 1978.

World's most chilling cults

Another of the world's worst cult-related massacres took place in southwestern Uganda's Kanungu district in 2000 where some 700 members from the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten...

www.monitor.co.ug

 

[StillDiggin]

213 people suspected to be Mackenzie's followers missing

This is as 73 bodies were exhumed in Shakahola

www.the-star.co.ke

 

[Quim The Extraordinaire]

This MSM article indicates that some of the deceased were murdered when they attempted to leave:

I lost my three sons to Shakahola cult, distraught Kisumu father says

Yimbo says his boys were lured to the cult by his brother, Wickliffe Omondi alias Waimoi.

nation.africa

During the search for his children [ages 21, 17 and 14], he discovered they were strangled while trying to escape from the camp.
The father of three described the scene as horrific. The children were buried behind the camp where they were staying in shallow graves.
Overwhelmed with the unfolding events, he passed out and was rushed to the hospital.
“Some of the victims who survived who knew my children said they tried to escape on March 15, but were caught and killed,” said Mr Yimbo.

 

[vls12345]

Kenya starvation cult death toll hits 90 as morgues fill up: "Nothing prepares you for shallow mass graves of children"

The cult appeared to require children to starve first, followed by women, and finally men, Hussein Khalid told AFP.

www.cbsnews.com

The death toll from a suspected Kenyan starvation cult climbed to 90 on Tuesday, including many children, as police said investigators were pausing the search for bodies because the morgues were full.

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There are fears more corpses could be found as search teams unearthed 17 bodies on Tuesday, with investigators saying children made up the majority of victims of what has been dubbed the "Shakahola Forest Massacre."

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"We don't know how many more graves, how many more bodies, we are likely to discover," Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki told reporters, adding the crimes were serious enough to warrant terrorism charges against Mackenzie.

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An officer from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) also confirmed that children accounted for more than half of the victims, followed by women.

Hussein Khalid, executive director of the rights group Haki Africa that tipped off the police to Mackenzie's activities, told AFP that the cult appeared to require children to starve first, followed by women, and finally men.

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[vls12345]

Children account for majority of Kenyan cult deaths, interior minister says

Children account for most of the 109 bodies so far recovered in mass graves linked to a cult in Kenya, the interior minister said on Friday, the latest details in a case that has shocked the country and prompted calls for tighter regulation of religious fringe groups.

www.reuters.com

The video says the Red Cross thinks the number of deaths will rise as there are still around 350 people unaccounted for.

NAIROBI, April 28 (Reuters) - Children account for most of the 109 bodies so far recovered in mass graves linked to a cult in Kenya, the interior minister said on Friday, the latest details in a case that has shocked the country and prompted calls for tighter regulation of religious fringe groups.

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Kindiki, who called those behind the deaths terrorists, also announced the launch of an air search over the Shakahola forest, where the bodies were found and are being exhumed. He said autopsies on the recovered bodies would start on Monday.

The government would be announcing new measures governing churches next week, he said.

PASTORS ARRESTED​

The leader of the Good News International Church, Paul Mackenzie, has been in police custody since April 14. Kenyan media say he is accused of persuading his followers to starve themselves to death.

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On Thursday, a pastor at a separate nearby church, Ezekiel Odero, was arrested. He appeared in court in the coastal city of Mombasa on Friday, but was not charged and was ordered to reappear on Tuesday. He remained in police custody.

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Police are investigating Odero for crimes including murder, aiding suicide, abduction and child cruelty, the document said.

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[ifindedout]

Released on 1.5 million shillings bail:

Blow to State as pastor Ezekiel Odero freed on Sh1.5m cash bail

Shanzu magistrate says the State failed to give sufficient reason to extend his time in police custody.

nation.africa

A court on Thursday released pastor Ezekiel Odero from police custody, saying the State failed to give sufficient reason to extend his stay there.

The court in Mombasa County said the state failed to prove how Mr Odero's freedom would interfere with the collection of evidence, including DNA samples from the bodies of victims of the Shakahola massacre.

Shanzu Senior Principal Magistrate Joe Omido also said the State failed to give an update on the probe, such as on whether witness statements had been recorded.

He released the televangelist on a Sh3 million bond, with a surety of the same amount, or Sh1.5million cash bail.

“The bond or bail terms … shall subsist until the respondent is formally charged and or until the investigations are completed” he said.

 

[ifindedout]

Update: 201 dead, over 600 missing:

Kenya cult death toll hits 200, with more than 600 reported missing

The death toll linked to a doomsday cult in Kenya has hit 201 after police exhumed 22 more bodies on Saturday

abcnews.go.com

Coast regional commissioner Rhoda Onyancha on Saturday said the total number of those arrested stood at 26, with 610 people reported as missing by their families.

It is unclear how many survivors have been rescued so far from the search and rescue operations on Mackenzie's vast property. Some of them were too weak to walk when they were found.

 

[Quim The Extraordinaire]

Longer feature on this from the New York Times.

He Told Followers to Starve to Meet Jesus. Why Did So Many Do It?

Hundreds were drawn to a remote wilderness in southeastern Kenya by the End Times preaching of pastor Paul Mackenzie. Relatives and ex-members tried to intervene, but some did not want to be rescued.

www.nytimes.com

<snip>
The horrific scale of what the Kenyan news media called the “Shakahola Massacre” has left the government struggling to explain how, in a country that counts itself among Africa’s most modern and stable nations, law enforcement had for so long missed the macabre goings-on in an expanse of land located between two popular tourist destinations, Tsavo National Park and the Indian Ocean coast.
That so many people disregarded the most basic human instinct to survive and chose instead to die through fasting has raised sensitive questions about the limits of religious freedom, a right that is enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution.

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[vls12345]

Autopsies reveal missing organs in Kenya cult deaths, say police

Discovery raises suspicions of forced harvesting by suspects linked to group led by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie

www.google.com

 

[Clearsky]

Suspected Kenyan Cult Leader Facing Charges in Connection with the Deaths of More Than 429 People

Paul Mackenzie is the leader of a suspected cult that lived in the Shakahola Forest, where over 400 bodies have been exhumed.

people.com

A suspected Kenyan cult leader and 94 other defendants have been charged with murder and cruelty, among several other charges, in connection with the deaths of more than 400 people, according to multiple reports.

 

[vls12345]

Kenya declares cult an ‘organised criminal group’ after starvation deaths

The authorities’ declaration comes as cult leader Mackenzie faces charges of murder, child torture and “terrorism”.

www.aljazeera.com

"In an official gazette document published on Wednesday, the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki declared the church an “organised criminal group”, paving the way for further investigation and possible prosecution of members deemed to have aided Mackenzie."

 

[vls12345]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/06/africa/kenyan-cult-leader-charged-with-murder-of-191-children-intl/index.html

"Kenyan Christian cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 29 other suspects were charged with the murder of 191 children on Tuesday morning by the Malindi High Court."