About a week and a half after the discovery of a hungry Christian sect in a forest in Kenya, the cult’s increasingly tragic dimensions are becoming known. The police spoke of at least 58 known fatalities.
“As of yesterday, 47 deaths were confirmed. Today there are another 11. These are bodies that have been recovered and people who have died on the way to hospital,” said Police Inspector General Japheth Koome. 29 other people have been rescued alive so far.
Forensic scientists and rescue workers continued to search for bodies and survivors in the confusing forest area of ??Shakahola, not far from the coastal town of Malindi in the south of the East African country. 112 people were reported missing in a Kenyan Red Cross registration office set up for the search operation. Kenya’s President William Ruto spoke of a terrible crime, which he compared to terrorism.
Hoping To “Meet Jesus”
Authorities in Malindi received a tip on April 13 that followers of a local pastor were starving to death in the forest area in hopes of “meeting Jesus”. The next day, police found 15 starving people in a remote settlement in the forest, 6 of whom were in critical condition. According to the police, four of them died during the rescue measures. After leads, the police began combing the wooded area for mass graves. According to the interior minister, the entire forest area, which is more than three square kilometers in size, is secured as a crime scene.
The free church pastor Paul Mackenzie from Malindi was arrested as the leader of the sect. Police Inspector General Koome acknowledged that Mackenzie had caught the police’s attention as early as 2017. He was last arrested in March but then released on bail. He turned himself in to the police on April 14, Koome said. A court imposed a two-week pre-trial detention last Monday.
President Ruto: “A Terrible Criminal”
A belief in personal sacrifice as a ticket to life after death is said to have prevailed in the sect. Relatives of cult members told local media that the followers sold their belongings and cut off contact with their families. Accordingly, Mackenzie forced her to stop her worldly activities and take children out of school. Unlike his emaciated followers, the cult leader himself is said to have shown no signs of starvation or weight loss.
Kenyan President Ruto compared the man to a terrorist on Monday. “What we see in Shakahola is Mr Mackenzie posing as a pastor when in reality he is a horrific criminal. Terrorists use religion to further their heinous acts. People like Mr Mackenzie use religion to do the same “, he said.
Kenya’s Minister of the Interior, Kithure Kindiki, called for more supervision of religious institutions. “The massacre in Shakahola Forest is the clearest violation of the constitutional human right to freedom of religion. On the face of it, crimes were committed on a large scale under both Kenyan law and international law,” Kindiki said. What is needed is “stricter control (including self-control) of all churches, mosques, temples and synagogues.”
