Kenya police exhume remains from suspected Christian cult graves

By William On Apr 23, 2023

Police launched an investigation over reports that cult followers believed they would go to heaven if they starved.

Kenyan police have unearthed human remains from more than a dozen suspected graves in the east of the country during an investigation into followers of a Christian sect who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves.

Police began exhuming bodies on Friday, said Charles Kamau, a detective in the town of Malindi near Shakahola Forest in Kilifi province, where police rescued 15 members of the Good News International Church last week, according to footage broadcast by Citizen. TV.

Unnamed police sources told AFP news agency on Saturday that 21 bodies had been found so far and more could be discovered.

“In total we have 21 bodies as of yesterday,” a police source on condition of anonymity told AFP, referring to excavations in the Shakahola forest outside the coastal town of Malindi.

“We haven’t even scratched the surface yet, which is a clear indication that we’re likely to get more bodies by the end of this exercise,” the source added. A second police source confirmed the same toll, also on condition of anonymity, AFP reported.

Kenya’s NTV channel reported on Saturday that seven bodies had been removed from two of the 32 suspected graves marked by police.

Kenyan police officers stand guard as forensic experts and homicide detectives dig up the bodies of suspected members of a Christian sect called the Good News International Church, who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves, in the Shakahola forest of the Kilifi province, Kenya. on April 22, 2023 [Stringer/Reuters]

Church leader Paul Mackenzie, also identified in reports as Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, was arrested, Reuters news agency reported. Mackenzie’s attorney was not immediately available for comment. NTV reported that Mckenzie has been on hunger strike in his cell since his arrest last week.

The controversial leader of the cult in Kilifi, Paul Mackenzie, has gone on hunger strike in police cells. https://t.co/MUqHQwsTpU

— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) April 22, 2023

Police said the 15 rescued believers were ordered to starve themselves so they could meet their creator. Four of them died before reaching the hospital.

Titus Katana, a former church member, helped police identify the graves.

“We showed the graves to the police and, moreover, we saved the life of a woman who had only hours to live or else she would have been dead,” Katana told Citizen TV.

Matthew Shipeta of Haki Africa, a human rights organization, said he had seen at least 15 shallow graves in the forest.

Helen Mikali, the manager of a children’s home who also helped investigators, said she had visited several nearby villages where parents and children had disappeared.

“I personally visited about 18 children’s graves,” Mikali told Citizen TV. She did not say how she knew the graves contained the remains of children.

Last month, police arrested and later released Mackenzie for encouraging the parents of two boys to starve and suffocate their children.

At trial in that case, Mackenzie said he was unaware of the events leading up to the deaths of the two boys, adding that he was the target of hostile propaganda from some of his former colleagues, The Standard newspaper reported. .

Local media reported that six Mackenzie associates had also been arrested.