Two Kenyan pastors appear in court on Tuesday suspected of being involved in the deaths of at least 109 people in a forest in southeastern Kenya, a case that has sparked fear and misunderstanding in the religious country in East Africa. East.
Self-proclaimed pastor of the International Church of Good News, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge must be presented to a court in the city of Malindi.
He is accused of pushing his followers to starve “
to meet Jesus
” in the nearby Shakahola Forest.
Ezekiel Odero, one of the most influential pastors in the country, is expected in court in Mombasa, the country's second city, where he was transferred after his arrest in Malindi on Thursday.
He was taken into custody pending investigations into his possible involvement in what is now known as the "
Shakahola Forest Massacre
".
It is in this forest on the Kenyan coast where followers of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge's sect gathered that more than thirty mass graves were found, containing more than a hundred bodies, the majority of them children. , according to a still provisional assessment.
Paul Mackenzie Nthenge - who surrendered to the police on April 14, after the first police operation in the forest - is targeted, along with 13 other people, by charges of "murder", "conspiracy to
murder
"
,
"
kidnapping with a view to locking up
” and “
cruelty towards children
”, among other things, according to court documents consulted by AFP.
Starvation and suffocation
Investigators suspect the victims died of starvation after following his precepts of fasting to death to "
meet Jesus
".
Initial autopsies Monday on 10 bodies also revealed deaths of children by asphyxiation.
“
No organ was missing
,” the head of the national forensic services, Dr. Johansen Oduor, told the press.
The full results of the DNA swab identification may not be known for "
months
", he added.
The victims may not all be members of the Good News Church International.
The case took an unexpected turn on Thursday with the arrest of Ezekiel Odero.
Multiple investigations underway
A court in Mombasa is due to rule on Tuesday on a request by prosecutors to keep him in custody for 30 days, because "
there is credible information linking the exhumed bodies (...) to Shakahola
" with "
several innocent and vulnerable followers (of the church of Odero) who would have died
", they estimate.
This rich and famous televangelist, at the head of his church called Prayer Center and Church of New Life, is notably targeted by investigations for “murder
”
, “
assisted suicide
”, “
kidnapping
”, “
radicalization
”, “
crimes against humanity
"
,
"
cruelty against children
", "
fraud and money laundering
".
"Terrorists"
This scandal has shaken Kenya, a predominantly Christian country with 4,000 "
churches
", according to official figures.
The authorities are under fire for not having prevented the actions of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, yet arrested several times for his extreme sermons.
President William Ruto has promised action against those who "
use religion to advance a shady and unacceptable ideology
"
,
whom he likened to "
terrorists
".