Hunger Sect: 179 Dead Who Fasted to Join Jesus
- May 12, 2023
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Police said the number of suspected Christian sect members who fasted to death in southern Kenya to meet Jesus Christ rose to 179 after authorities discovered 29 new
Police said the number of suspected Christian sect members who fasted to death in southern Kenya to meet Jesus Christ rose to 179 after authorities discovered 29 new bodies in a forest in the south of the country on Friday.
Rhoda Onyancha, commissioner of the Kenya Coastal Regional Police, said the new bodies were buried in the Shakahol Forest in the coastal district of Kilifi, where excavations and investigations are ongoing.
In addition, police are on the trail of 609 missing people, Onianca said, although it is not clear if all cases are related to the sect.
The number of those rescued alive remains at 72.
Almost all of those who died during the so-called “Shakahol massacre” were exhumed from the graves and mass graves found in this forest, with the exception of a few who died in the hospital due to a serious condition.
Autopsies of over a hundred bodies showed that while all showed signs of starvation, the corpses of at least three juveniles and one adult also showed signs of strangulation and asphyxiation.
Similarly, early investigations by the police show that believers were forced to continue fasting even if they wanted to give it up.
This Wednesday, a Shanzu court in the coastal city of Mombasa ordered a thirty-day extension (starting May 3) of the detention of the sect leader who allegedly persuaded victims to fast, Pastor Paul Mackenzie Ntenge, as well as his wife and 16 other suspects.
On 2 May, Ntenge and other detainees were released by a court in the tourist coastal town of Malindi after prosecutors announced their intention to charge them with terrorism, for which the court found itself incompetent.
However, a few minutes later, the pastor and his henchmen were arrested and taken to the Shanzu Court, about 120 kilometers away, where the police unsuccessfully requested permission to detain them for another 90 days.
Last Friday, Kenyan President William Ruto appointed a commission of inquiry, chaired by Judge Jesse Lesiit, to investigate the facts and determine possible administrative or security negligence.
Ntenge, who has been in police custody since April 14, leads the Good News International Church.
The ecstasy driver, the pastor, had already been arrested in March last year, charged with the death of two children under similar circumstances, but was released on bail. EFE
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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