The Kenyan authorities are dismayed after finding at least 58 dead bodies of people in the last suspected of belonging to a sect that, according to the versions, urged its followers to fast to “know Jesus” and get to heaven soon.
These are people belonging to the International Church of the Good News, whose bodies were found in a forest of more than 300 hectares.
This is what is known about the sect and the leader, designated as responsible for the deaths.
The first bodies found
April 14th, The authorities found the remains of four followers of the International Church of Good News in the Shakahola forest (Good News International Church), led by Paul Makenzie Nthenge, who would have urged his followers to fast to “know Jesus.”
That day, another 11 people had been rescued and hospitalized.
But the gruesome finds continued to occur in the Shakahola forest in the days that followed, located near the coastal town of Malini.
Police chief Japhet Koome, who attended the scene on Monday, said 58 people had been confirmed dead. The figure includes “bodies exhumed and those who died on the way to the hospital,” he said.
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Found the bodies of 21 alleged members of a Christian sect in #Kenya
Everything indicates that they died of starvation. According to the police, the #sect he urged his faithful to fast in an extreme way.
Since Thursday, authorities have discovered 65 possible graves. /jpc pic.twitter.com/0ag9ifm9ix
— DW Spanish (@dw_espanol) April 23, 2023
The leader of the sect, the preacher Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, has assured the authorities that they will find more than a thousand people who went to “meet Jesus”.
You will find more than a thousand people who went to meet Jesus
The policemen still hope to find more bodies in this forest where the members of the sect met, while the Kenya Red Cross has received reports of at least 112 missing people in the zone.
Already on April 14, the Kenyan Police raided the place where Nthenge’s followers were celebrating their fast and rescued fifteen people, but four of them died on the way to a hospital in the city of Malindi.
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On Sunday, for example, a woman was found by authorities bulging-eyed and refused to eat, before being taken away in an ambulance.
The woman “absolutely refused first aid and clamped her mouth shut, refusing to eat and wanted to continue her fast until death,” said Hussein Khalid, a member of Haki Africa, an organization that alerted police to the church’s actions.
What is known about the sect
The local Citizen Digital medium assures that Cult leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge settled on a farm in Malindi, Kenya, in 2015, with the aim of adding all possible followers to their beliefs.
“His followers began to go one by one to follow him…not only the children were fasting, but also our neighbors who were following him because of the fasting issue…other neighbors had a fight with their wives over this servant,” Johnson Katana, a resident, told him. from the area, to the aforementioned newspaper.
Local media say that Mackenzie stopped preaching in 2019 and that he dedicated himself to living in the village of Shakahola, where the bodies were found this week.
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47 dead bodies have been discovered in shallow graves by the Police in Malindi, Kenya, after Pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge told his members to starve themselves to death to see Jesus.”
15 other members were rescued by Police officers in the forest last week. pic.twitter.com/K2q9jJlzIY
— Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) April 23, 2023
It is about a taxi driver who became a “pastor” in 2003, and whose extreme preaching has earned him two arrests since 2017.
On your organization’s website, it is indicated that this was “created on August 17, 2003 by the servant of God PN Mackenzie”. With branches in various regions of Kenya, the International Church of the Good News has more than 3,000 members, a thousand of them in the coastal city of Malindi, where it had settled.
“The mission of this ministry is to nurture the faithful holistically in all areas of Christian spirituality as we prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ through teaching and evangelism,” it reads.
Paul Mackenzie Nthenge broadcast a program entitled “Message of the end times” that evoked “teachings, preaching and prophecies about the end times, commonly called eschatology.” He claimed to “bring the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ free from deception and the intellect of man.”
He also launched a YouTube channel in 2017, where videos of his sermons can be found at his church in Malindi, where he strongly warned his followers against “demonic” practices such as wearing wigs and making digital transactions without cash.
We prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ through teaching and evangelism
Kenyan outlet Nation claims that the sect and the terrible events that took place within it came to light on March 17, when Langobaya police received a report of the murder of two children.
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“Court documents say that the two (parents), on the advice of Mr. Mackenzie, had starved and suffocated children Seth Hinzano and Evabra Dito,” the quoted media says.That information gave way to the authorities to now find more than 58 bodies.
The macabre findings raise questions about the attitude of the authorities, who knew about the pastor’s activities since 2017.
Nthenge had already been arrested because he convinced many children not to go to school on the grounds that education was not recognized in the Bible. At the time, he was charged with “radicalization” and running an unregistered school.
The pastor was arrested again last month after two children died of starvation. But he posted bail of 100,000 Kenyan shillings (about $740) and was released.
According to the Nation media, from Kenya, Mackenzie was accused “of manipulating the locals through extreme religious teachings biased and fear of the unknown in search of salvation, which led to the death of many”.
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“The self-proclaimed spiritual leader, once a controversial televangelist, is now on detectives’ radar for allegedly preaching a dangerous doctrine that encourages his followers to starve themselves to get to heaven faster,” the newspaper reported. .
Nthenge turned himself in to the police and has been detained since 15 April. He will appear before a judge on May 2.
The response of the authorities
The authorities have already begun to demonstrate. Kenyan President William Ruto vowed on Monday crack down on “shady” religious movements.
“What we saw in (…) Sakhola is characteristic of terrorists,” the president declared at a diploma delivery ceremony for prison officials. “Terrorists use religion to promote their heinous acts. People like Mackenzie use religion to do exactly the same thing,” he continued.
The Kenyan president said he had asked the “responsible bodies to deal with the matter and get to the root and bottom of the activities of religions and people who want to use religion to promote a murky and unacceptable ideology.”
47 dead bodies have been discovered in shallow graves by the Police in Malindi, Kenya, after Pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge told his members to starve themselves to d*ath to see Jesus.”
15 other members were rescued by Police officers in the forest last week. pic.twitter.com/bZMPVDlSdd
— Aminu Abdullahi Ibrahim (@UncleAminukhan) April 24, 2023
“We ask the national government to send troops to the ground so that we can go inside (the forest) to help the victims who continue to fast until death,” he added.
The 300-hectare forest where the bodies were found is cordoned off and has been declared a “crime scene,” Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Twitter on Sunday.
“It’s a big blow and a big shock to our country,” Sebastian Muteti, child protection officer for Kilifi county, told AFP.
For him, it is about “mass killings”.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP and EFE
#Kenya #sect #fasted #death #Jesus