Kenya cult dying toll hits 200, with far more than 600 described missing
The demise toll linked to a doomsday cult in Kenya has strike 201 right after police exhumed 22 far more bodies on Saturday
ByEVELYNE MUSAMBI Related Push
NAIROBI, Kenya — The demise toll linked to a doomsday cult in Kenya strike 201 Saturday just after law enforcement exhumed 22 extra bodies, most of them bearing signs of hunger, according to the coastline regional commissioner.
The bodies are believed to be individuals of followers of a pastor primarily based in coastal Kenya, Paul Mackenzie. He’s alleged (avoiding repetition of “believed”) to have ordered congregants to starve to demise in purchase to satisfy Jesus.
Extra than 600 folks are nevertheless lacking.
Mackenzie, who was arrested last thirty day period, remains in custody. Law enforcement system to cost him with terrorism-connected offenses.
Hundreds of bodies have been dug up from dozens of mass graves spread throughout his 800-acre residence, found in the coastal county of Kilifi.
Mackenzie insists that he shut his church in 2019 and moved to his house in a forested location to farm.
Autopsies executed on additional than 100 bodies past 7 days confirmed the victims died of starvation, strangulation, suffocation and injuries sustained from blunt objects.
Nearby media outlets have been reporting scenarios of missing inner overall body organs, quoting investigators in the situation.
Mackenzie, his spouse and 16 other suspects will seem in court docket at the stop of the month.
Coast regional commissioner Rhoda Onyancha on Saturday mentioned the total selection of people arrested stood at 26, with 610 folks documented as lacking by their households.
It is unclear how numerous survivors have been rescued so considerably from the research and rescue operations on Mackenzie’s huge residence. Some of them were being too weak to stroll when they were being identified.
Cults are common in Kenya, which has a spiritual modern society.
Law enforcement across the region have been questioning other spiritual leaders whose teachings are believed to be misleading and contrary to fundamental human rights.
President William Ruto past 7 days shaped a commission of inquiry to look into how hundreds of individuals were lured to their deaths at the coastline and endorse motion on establishments that unsuccessful to act.
Mackenzie experienced in the earlier been billed with the deaths of small children in his church in a circumstance that is ongoing in court docket. Inhabitants nearby experienced lifted the alarm following his followers moved to the forested location.
