At least 179 dead in a sect in southern Kenya that fasted to meet with Jesus
The number of suspected members of a Christian sect who fasted to death in southern Kenya to meet with Jesus Christ has risen to 179 after authorities found 29 new bodies on Friday in a forest in the south of the country, police said.
According to the Kenyan Coast Regional Police Commissioner, Rhoda Onyancha, the new bodies were buried in the Shakahola forest, in coastal Kilifi County, where excavations and investigations continue.
In addition, the Police are following the trail of 609 disappeared people, Onyancha said, although it is not clear that all the cases are related to this sect. The number of people rescued alive remains at 72.
Almost all the dead of the so-called 'Shakahola massacre' have been exhumed from graves and mass graves found in that forest, with the exception of a few who died in hospital due to their serious condition.
Strangulation and suffocation traits
The autopsies of more than a hundred bodies showed that, although all showed signs of starvation, the corpses of at least three minors and one adult also had signs of strangulation and suffocation. Likewise, the first investigations by the Police suggest that the faithful were forced to continue fasting even if they wanted to abandon it.
This Wednesday, the Shanzu court, in the coastal city of Mombasa, ordered an extension for thirty days (beginning the count on May 3) the detention of the leader of the sect who allegedly persuaded the victims to fast, Pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, along with his wife and 16 other suspects.
On May 2, Nthenge and the other detainees were released by the court in the tourist coastal city of Malindi, after the Prosecutor's Office stated its intention to file terrorism charges against them, something for which that court declared itself. incompetent.
The pastor has already been arrested
However, the pastor and his henchmen were arrested minutes later and taken to the Shanzu court, some 120 kilometers away, where the police unsuccessfully requested authorization to detain them for another 90 days.
Last Friday, the President of Kenya, William Ruto, appointed a commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Jessie Lesiit to clarify the facts and determine the administrative or security negligence that could have occurred. Nthenge, in police custody since April 14, leads the Good News International Church.
An ecstasy driver, the pastor was already arrested last March after being accused of the death of two children in similar circumstances, but he was released on bail.