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Leader Of The Kenyan Starvation Cult Faces Terrorism Trial
According to an AFP reporter, self-described pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie appeared in court in Mombasa, a port city on the Indian Ocean, among 94 other defendants. Soon after the hearing began, journalists were taken out of the courtroom to make way for a protected witness to testify.
According to allegations made against him, Mackenzie, who was detained in April of last year, encouraged his followers to starve to death to “meet Jesus.” During a hearing in January, he and his co-accused entered not-guilty pleas to the terrorism charges.
They are also accused of kidnapping, murder, manslaughter, and torturing and abusing children. The “Shakahola forest massacre” has been named for the discovery of more than 440 people’s bodies thus far in a lonely wilderness located inland from the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi.
Although malnutrition seemed to be the primary cause of death, autopsies have revealed that some victims, including children, had been beaten, strangled, or suffocated. Additionally, according to earlier court records, some of the bodies had had their organs removed.
On April 14, 2023, Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, turned himself in after police entered Shakahola Forest, where mass graves had been discovered, on a tip.
After laborious months of identifying the victims by DNA testing, the authorities started to release the bodies of some of them to grieving relatives. Concerns have been expressed regarding Mackenzie’s escape from law enforcement despite his high profile and prior legal disputes.
The doomsday cult leader; Mackenzie is a self-described pastor with a radical past. Last year, Kenyan police were accused of being too lenient in their investigation of the early accusations of malnutrition by Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki.
“We will relentlessly push for legal reforms to tame rogue preachers,” he declared during a senate committee hearing, calling the Shakahola massacre “the worst breach of security in our country’s history.”
Security personnel in Malindi were chastised in March by the government-backed Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) for “gross abdication of duty and negligence”. President William Ruto has promised to get involved in Kenya’s domestic religious movements as a result of the horrifying tale. It has also brought attention to the ineffective attempts to control dishonest churches and cult(s) that have dabbled in criminal activity in Kenya, a country that is predominately Christian.
Gentle Reminder: Be careful how you use your authority and influence, be wise, and treat others with respect.
Chychy Jonas