This Tuesday,
Paul Nthenge Mackenzie
, leader of a Kenyan sect that made hundreds of its followers fast to death, was accused along with 29 other alleged associates of killing
191 children
.
The evidence is compelling and terrifying: the bodies were found buried last year in a forest in the south of the country.
It is said that Mackenzie and his group persuaded some 430 people to fast to die and, consequently, meet Jesus.
Mackenzie's associates denied their charges before the High Court judge in the coastal town of Malindi,
Mugure Thande
.
A lawyer for the sect's leader,
James Mouko
, argued in court that the number of charges is "oppressive and violates the constitutional rights of the accused."
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), led at the hearing by prosecutor
Victor Mule
, opposed the release of the suspects on bail.
"The matter at hand is complex and the suspects should not be released on bail," Mule argued.
The perpetrator of the "Shakahola massacre"
This is the third time that Kenyan authorities have brought charges against the alleged leaders of the Mackenzie sect, who already face accusations of terrorism and involuntary manslaughter of at least 238 people.
Mackenzie on the bench in May 2023. Photo: AFP
Mackenzie is the alleged perpetrator of what is known as the "
Shakahola massacre
", in reference to the name of the forest in the coastal county of Kilifi where authorities found most of the nearly 430 bodies of his followers, many of them, in mass graves and tombs. children.
The religious leader supposedly convinced the faithful of his church to fast until they died, under the promise that they would meet Jesus.
Autopsies carried out later showed that, in addition to
traces of starvation on all the bodies
, some also had
signs of strangulation and asphyxiation
.
Holes are seen dug after exhuming bodies in the mass grave where a sect was believed to practice mass starvation in Shakahola.
Photo: AFP
Thus, Police investigations indicate that the faithful were forced to continue fasting even if they wanted to abandon it.
Kenyan authorities arrested Mackenzie on April 14 and since then he has been detained along with nearly thirty co-accused.
On January 31, the Kenyan Ministry of the Interior designated his sect, the
International Church of the Good News
, as an organized criminal group.
Mackenzie was arrested on April 14, 2023. Photo: REUTER
Source: EFE