The balance of the “Shakahola massacre”, the name of a forest in Kenya where a evangelical sect that practiced extreme fastingwent up on Monday to 403 dead after the discovery of 12 new bodiesannounced a regional official.
“Our medical-legal team was able to exhume 12 bodies today,” Monday, the prefect of the coastal region, Rhoda Onyancha, told the press, adding in a message to AFP that the “total balance” is “403 dead.”
The authorities expect the balance to increase, as The search for mass graves continues in a large area of the Kenyan coastabout three months after the discovery of the first victims.
The police consider that most of the exhumed bodies are of adherents of the International Church of the Good News (Good News International Church), created by self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, who advocated for fasting until death to “meet Jesus”.
This former taxi driver has been detained since April 14 and will be prosecuted, among other things, for “terrorism.”
(Keep reading: The Christian sanctuary where the faithful starve, seeking salvation.)
other 16 people are accused of belonging to a group of men in charge of ensuring so that no adherent would break the fast or escape from the forest, located near the coastal city of Malindi.
The autopsies carried out so far revealed that most of the victims died of starvation, after listening to some sentences. Some of the victims, including children, were strangled, beaten or suffocated, according to autopsies.
The Minister of the Interior announced that the Shakahola forest will be declared a “place of memory”.
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These processes were condemned by groups defending human rights. The NGO Kenya National Human Rights Commission denounced an “inappropriate decision (which) will traumatize survivors when they desperately need understanding.”
‘Worst security flaw’
Massacre sparked commotion in Kenya and put the authorities in the crosshairs of criticism for not having prevented the performances of Pastor Mackenzie, who had previously been arrested for his extreme preaching.
In March he had been released on bail after being accused of the death by starvation of two children who were in the custody of their parents, related to the sect.
Before the Senate committee on July 11, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki denounced the lax attitude of the local police after the first cases of hunger were reported in Shakahola.
(You can read: At least 17 dead in an airstrike in the capital of Sudan).
Also The judicial authorities that released the pastor after the previous arrests were criticized.
“The Shakahola massacre is the worst security failure in the history of our country,” he said, and called for legal reforms “to control criminal preachers.”
The case also reignited the debate over the control of cults in Kenya, country with a Christian majority that has 4,000 “churches”according to official figures.
AFP
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