Fears were growing in Kenya yesterday that there could be more victims of a starvation cult, as investigators resumed their searches after finding dozens of corpses in mass graves.
Police have spent days scouring the Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi after receiving a tip-off about a cult led by Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, who urged his followers to starve to death in order to find god.
Police sources late on Monday said that the death toll was 73, with a number of people rescued and taken to hospital.
Photo: Reuters
The grim discovery has sent shock waves through the nation, prompting Kenyan President William Ruto to pledge a crackdown on “unacceptable” religious movements amid fears that the toll was set to climb higher.
“We believe there are more,” Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome told reporters on Monday.
It is believed some followers of the Good News International Church could still be hiding in the bush around Shakahola and at risk of death if not quickly found.
Hussein Khalid, executive director of the rights group Haki Africa that tipped off the police, urged the authorities to send more rescuers to scour the 325 hectares of woodland for survivors.
“Each day that passes by there is very high possibility that more are dying,” he said. “The horror that we have seen over the last four days is traumatizing. Nothing prepares you for shallow mass graves of children.”
Investigators said they found bodies squeezed into shallow pits — with up to six people inside one grave — while others were simply left outside on the ground.
Kenyan Minister of Interior and National Administration Kithure Kindiki yesterday announced plans to visit the site, while Ruto vowed to take action against rogue pastors like Nthenge, “who want to use religion to advance weird, unacceptable ideology,” comparing them to terrorists.
As the Kenyan authorities try to uncover the true scale of what is being dubbed the “Shakahola Forest Massacre,” questions have emerged about how the cult was able to operate undetected, despite Nthenge attracting police attention six years ago.
The televangelist in 2017 was arrested on charges of “radicalization” after urging families not to send their children to school, saying education was not recognized by the Bible.
He was arrested again last month, local media reported, after two children starved to death in the custody of their parents.
He was released on bail of 100,000 Kenyan shillings (US$737) before surrendering to police following the Shakahola raid.
The case is due to be heard on Tuesday next week.
The Kenya Red Cross said 212 people had been reported missing to its support staff in Malindi, out of which two were reunited with their families.
The case has prompted calls for tighter control of fringe denominations in a nation with a troubling history of self-declared pastors and cults that have dabbled in criminality.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including