2023-05-15 09:30:58
“There was laxity in our government,” admitted William Ruto, president of the African country where more than 200 people fasted to death to “find Jesus.”
The President of Kenya asked sorry on behalf of your government for not having been able to prevent more than two hundred alleged members of a Christian sect from the south of the country fast to death to meet Jesus. “It shouldn’t have happened. For that, I apologize,” he acknowledged. William Ruto.
“I must not take this lightly,” Ruto remarked during an interview broadcast on several Kenyan television channels late on Sunday. “It is obvious that there was laxity in our government, which unfortunately led to the deaths of many Kenyans.” the president admitted.
In addition, the Kenyan president said “I take full responsibility” and promised that “the people responsible for this government failure they will have to be held accountable.” He also assured that the country is carrying out an “exhaustive” investigation of the facts to get to “the bottom of the matter.”
In parallel, Ruto warned that will monitor religious institutions in Kenya to avoid a repetition of similar actions, although he made it clear that it is “unfair” to condemn and criticize all religions based on the actions of a few individuals.
“We want to establish with the religious leaders a mechanism that guarantees that criminals and thieves do not take advantage of religion and faith to cause damage,” he said.
The number of suspected members of a Christian sect who fasted to death to meet with Jesus Christ climbed last Saturday to 201 after the authorities found this day 22 new bodies in the Shakahola forest. The number may continue to grow since the excavations have not yet finished.
Almost all those killed in the so-called “Shakahola massacre” have been exhumed from graves and mass graves found in that forest, except for a few who died in the hospital due to their serious condition.
The autopsies of more than a hundred bodies showed that, although they all showed signs of starvationthe corpses of at least three minors and one adult also had signs of strangulation and suffocation.
Likewise, the first investigations by the Police suggest that the faithful were forced to continue fasting, even if they wanted to abandon it.
The regional police commissioner for the Kenyan coast, Rhoda Onyancha, told the press that the operation will resume next Monday. Onyanch also reported on Saturday that she had detained one more suspect, bringing the total number of suspects involved to 26.
The regional police commissioner also said the number of people reported missing had risen to 610 since Friday. Meanwhile, the number of people rescued alive remained at 72.
The leader of the sect, arrested
Last Wednesday, the Shanzu court, in the coastal city of Mombasa, ordered an extension for thirty days (beginning the count on May 3) the detention of the sect leader who allegedly persuaded the victims to fast, Pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, along with his wife and 16 other suspects.
On May 2, Nthenge and the other detainees were released by the court in the tourist coastal city of Malindi, after the Prosecutor’s Office stated its intention to file terrorism charges against them, something for which that court declared itself. incompetent.
However, the pastor, who leads the Good News International Church (International Church of Good News), and his henchmen, were arrested minutes later and transferred to the Shanzu court, about 120 kilometers away, where the Police requested, without success, authorization to detain them for another ninety days.
With information from EFE.
ES
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