The leader of a cult suspected of causing the deaths of at least 110 people in Kenya was re-arrested by authorities on Tuesday and charged with terrorism, immediately after a court closed a first case against him.
Paul McKenzie, leader of the International Church of Good News, who had been detained since April 14, appeared in a Kenyan court earlier in the day to hear the prosecution request that the case against him be dismissed.
The court accepted the petition and ordered his release, although he was immediately detained along with six other suspects pending a new trial, a decision applauded by the families of the victims and civil society organizations, according to the Kenyan newspaper The Standard.
The first autopsies of bodies found in mass graves on land used by the sect in a wooded area of Shakahola, in Kilifi county, southern Kenya, confirmed that the victims died of starvation, although some were suffocated.
The discovery of the first bodies resulted from the excavations carried out by the authorities, on April 21, on the land used by the sect.
So far, the Kenyan authorities have recovered the lifeless bodies of 110 people from the site, although work continues in the area and that number is expected to increase.
The main leaders of the sect exhorted their followers to fast until death, with the promise that they would find Jesus Christ in a new life.
Kenyan President William Ruto has branded McKenzie a “terrible criminal” and the Kenya Red Cross Society has scrambled to try to locate some 210 people – including 110 children – who have been reported missing in relation to the activities of the sect.
The first autopsies carried out this Monday on ten of the 110 victims found in the jungle revealed deaths caused by hunger, but also by suffocation, announced the head of forensic operations.
On the first day, doctors autopsied nine bodies of children between the ages of 1 and 10 and one of a woman, the head of the national forensic services, Johansen Oduor, told reporters.
“Most had characteristics of hunger. We saw characteristics of people who were not eating, there was no food in the stomach, the layer of fat was very thin, ”she detailed.
Following today’s hearing, Paul Mackenzie was transferred to Mombasa, the country’s second-largest city, about a hundred kilometers away, where there is “a court empowered to hear cases under the Prevention of Terrorism Act,” said the Prosecutor Vivian Kambaga. .
The court is expected to grant the Public Ministry’s request to keep the sect leader in pretrial detention for 30 days, while his possible involvement in what became known as the “Shakahola forest massacre” is investigated.
Mackenzie’s case came at the same time that another case of religious extremism was hitting the pages of Kenyan newspapers, that of Kenyan religious leader Ezekiel Odero, who admitted on Saturday that 15 people were killed during his “spiritual interventions” at the religious center. from Malindi.
Odero admitted the deaths of his followers from the Center for Prayer and Church for a New Life, although his lawyers insist that the deceased were already “in critical condition” when they arrived at the center.
“When people die, the police are informed; there was no case of death in which the security forces were not informed,” said the evangelist’s lawyers, in statements to the newspaper La Nación, quoted by Efe.
The police, however, do not appear convinced by these arguments and directly link Odero and Mackenzie through their business connections, including an equity stake in a television network that both used to deliver “radical messages to their supporters”.
The investigation into Odero is expected to lead to charges of murder, kidnapping, radicalization, genocide, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering.
Source: TSF
