Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday (April 24th) promised action against “terrorist” cults that “use religion”, after the death of 73 followers of a sect in the east of the country which sparks a debate on security loopholes and laws against these organizations. The search continued on Monday in Shakahola Forest, located near the coastal town of Malindi, where dozens of bodies have been exhumed from mass graves in recent days.
The authorities have launched a major investigation into the Good News International Church, to which many of the victims belong. It is led by Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, according to court documents seen by AFP, a “pastor” who advocates fasting to “meet Jesus”. Accused of leading his followers to death, he surrendered to the police and has been in custody since April 14.
The death toll rose to 73 after Monday’s search, according to police sources, and could rise further on Tuesday as the search continues. “We have found 73 bodies in the forest until this evening,” a police officer involved in the investigation told AFP. The previous report, given in the morning by the Kenyan police chief, Japhet Koome, reported 58 dead. “This concerns the exhumed bodies and those who died on the way to the hospital”, detailed Mr. Koome, who went there.
Some adherents of the International Church of Good News may continue to hide in the 300 hectares of forest where they were congregating, police said. Twenty-nine people were recovered, according to Japhet Koome.
A “pastor” known for several years
“What we saw in (…) Shakahola, looks like terrorists,” President William Ruto said at a graduation ceremony for prison officers in the center of the country. “Terrorists use religion to promote their heinous acts. People like Mr. Mackenzie use religion to do the exact same thing,” he continued. He claimed to have “asked the responsible agencies to take up the matter and get to the root and the bottom of the activities of religions and people who want to use religion to advance a shady and unacceptable ideology.”
No details are available on the condition of the bodies and the duration of their presence in these mass graves. According to the Kenya Red Cross, 212 people have been reported missing to its on-site tracing office.
Hussein Khalid, a member of the Haki Africa organization which had warned of the actions of the International Church of Good News, called for more security forces to “go inside [the forest] and rescue these victims. fasting to death”. These macabre discoveries raise many questions about the attitude of the authorities, who had known this “pastor” for several years.
“How did such a heinous crime, organized and carried out over a long period of time, escape the radars of our intelligence system? How did this “pastor” round up so many people, indoctrinate, brainwash and starve them to death in the name of religion and then bury them in a forest undetected? “Asks Senate President Amason Jeffah Kingi in a statement on Monday.
The debate over cult control
Paul Mackenzie Nthenge was arrested in 2017 on charges of “radicalization” for advocating for many children not to go to school, claiming that education is not recognized in the Bible. He was arrested again in March after two children starved to death in the care of their parents, who then buried them. He was released on bail of 100,000 Kenyan shillings (about 670 euros).
This scandal also revives the debate on the control of cults in Kenya, a predominantly Christian country, where “pastors”, “Churches” and other marginal religious movements make the headlines. Previous attempts at regulation have met with strong opposition, in particular in the name of the separation between church and state.
This massacre is a “clear violation of the human right to freedom of worship enshrined in the Constitution”, said Sunday on Twitter the Minister of the Interior, Kithure Kindiki, who is to go there on Tuesday. “If the state respects religious freedom, this horrible misfortune on our conscience must lead not only to the severest of punishments for the perpetrator(s) of the atrocity (…), but also to stricter regulation (including the self-regulation) of every church, mosque, temple or synagogue in the future,” he said.
