2023-06-15 02:06:17
The alleged members of a Christian sect who fasted to death in southern Kenya to meet with Jesus Christ now number 318 after authorities found fifteen bodies on Wednesday, police said.
The regional police commissioner of the Kenyan coast, Rhoda Onyancha, confirmed these figures, registered since the exhumations began last April in the Shakahola forest, which are in their third phase.
In statements published by local media, Onyancha pointed out that the number of those rescued alive amounts to 95, while those reported missing are 613.
A new suspect was arrested, bringing to 36 those arrested in connection with the so-called “Shakahola massacre.”
Also this Wednesday they appeared before the Shanzu court, in the coastal city of Mombasa (south), the cult leader who allegedly persuaded the victims to fast, Pastor Paul Mackenzie, along with his wife and twenty-eight other suspects.
At the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, Judge Yusuf Shikanda ordered the transfer of Mackenzie and the rest of the police stations in which they were being held to the prison in the coastal city of Malindi, where they will remain until a new appearance scheduled for next 21 June.
The Prosecutor’s Office made the request due to the visible weakness of some suspects (one could not even stand up in court) who supported a hunger strike in police custody, so that in prison they are forced to eat and avoid the risk of death.
Those who have not stopped eating are Mackenzie and one of his assistants, according to the information provided today in court.
On Monday, a total of 65 victims rescued from the forest appeared before the Shanzu court for allegedly attempting suicide by refusing to eat at a rescue center.
The Prosecutor’s Office filed a request for them to be placed in pretrial detention, since the aforementioned center can no longer hold them.
Almost all the dead of the “Shakahola massacre” have been exhumed from graves and mass graves in that forest, except for a few who died in hospital due to their serious condition.
The autopsies of more than a hundred bodies showed that, Although all showed signs of starvation, the corpses of at least three minors and an adult also had signs of strangulation and suffocation.
The first investigations by the Police suggest that the faithful were forced to continue fasting even if they wanted to abandon it.
Kenyan President William Ruto apologized on behalf of the government on May 14 for failing to prevent the deaths.
Mackenzie, in police custody since April 14, leads the Good News International Church.
An ecstasy driver, the pastor was already arrested last March after being accused of the death of two children in similar circumstances, but he was released on bail.
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