More than 400 dead in Kenya doomsday cult as more bodies exhumed
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
NAIROBI, Kenya — The number of people who died in connection with Kenya's doomsday cult has crossed the 400 mark as detectives exhumed 12 more bodies on Monday believed to be followers of a pastor who ordered them to fast to death in order to meet Jesus.
Pastor Paul Mackenzie, who is linked to the cult based in a forested area in Malindi, coastal Kenya, is in police custody, along with 36 other suspects. All have yet to be charged.
Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha on Monday said the number of those who died has risen to 403, with 95 people rescued.
Investigators work at the mass grave site in Shakahola, outside the coastal town of Malindi, on April 25.Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP - Getty Images file
Last month, some suspects and people rescued started a hunger strike in prison and at the rescue center, prompting the prosecutor to take them to court for attempting to kill themselves. Most of them agreed to resume eating, but one suspect died in custody.
Some 613 people have so far been reported missing to Kenya Red Cross officers stationed in Malindi town. Detectives are still finding mass graves.
Onyancha said 253 of the 403 bodies had undergone DNA matching. Pathologists had earlier said most of the bodies were decomposed.
Investigation into a Kenyan doomsday cult suggests a 'highly organized crime'
Mackenzie moved to the forested area in 2019 after his church was closed over his preaching, which included asking children not to go to school.
He was previously arrested and released on bond over the disappearance of children.
A judicial commission of inquiry formed by President William Ruto to establish what happened and who was liable was quashed by a court order after opposition leader Raila Odinga filed a petition against it.
The president had said what transpired in Malindi was "akin to terrorism" and vowed to crack down on "those using religion to advance their heinous acts."
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an astonishing tragedy. doomsday cult is an appropriate description of fringe evangelical xtians...
The definition of "cult" becomes a little hazy for me at times.
Part of me considers any group that believes in mythology and superstition a cult.
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Reminds me of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple which combined elements of Christianity with communist and socialist ideology. This hero of the left was headquartered in San Francisco and then moved his congregation to Guyana in the mid 70's. In 78, after shooting a US Congressman, they drank cyanide laced kool aid killing over 900 members including around 300 kids.
Oh please! That is simply trolling on your part.
Religious extremism is wholly owned by the far right.
... reaching back 45 years to find the last left leaning religious scam artist, while the right leaning thumper scumbag list runs for pages since then.
Trolling? The seed is about mass suicide in a cult. It reminded me of an American mass suicide of a cult.
I don't know what religion this represented in Kenya anymore than what "religion" Jim Jones represented. If you talking about religious extremism around the world, we can find examples all of the political spectrum.
45 years? No, Black Liberation Theology and the African Hebrew Israelite Movement are current.
Just how do you convince people to starve themselves to death?
I just don't know. We have this doomsday cult here and we have the QAnon Queen of Canada and the NXIVM sex cult. There are so many con artists exploiting people for money, sex and personal validation. I don't think I'll ever really understand it.
swanson TV dinner diet...