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A doomsday cult chief whom the Kenyan authorities say ordered his congregants to starve themselves to dying was charged on Tuesday, together with 29 others, with the homicide of 191 youngsters — in a case that has drawn international consideration and introduced widespread scrutiny over non secular freedoms within the East African nation.
The choice, by a court docket within the coastal city of Malindi, was handed down nearly a month after a choose ordered that the cult chief, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, and the others who’re accused endure psychological well being evaluations earlier than going through any expenses.
Solely one of many suspects was deemed mentally unfit to face trial. Mr. Mackenzie, a pastor, and the opposite defendants pleaded not responsible and are scheduled to seem earlier than the court docket on March 7 for a bond listening to. They’re accused of killing the youngsters from January 2021 to September 2023, based on the prosecution.
Mr. Mackenzie, carrying a striped black-and-white polo shirt, stood alongside the others accused in a packed courtroom on Tuesday. He was seen whispering to the opposite defendants and, at one level, consulting his attorneys, based on video broadcast on tv. Armed law enforcement officials had been stationed inside and outdoors the courtroom premises.
Since final April, tons of of our bodies have been exhumed from the 800-acre Shakahola Forest, the place Mr. Mackenzie and his followers lived, with many buried in shallow graves. Dozens of different followers have been rescued, however tons of extra are lacking, based on native officers.
The nation’s inside minister, Kithure Kindiki, final week declared the pastor’s church, Good Information Worldwide Ministries, “an organized felony group.”
Mr. Mackenzie was a taxi driver who reinvented himself as an evangelical pastor about twenty years in the past. As his congregation grew, the authorities stated, he urged followers to convene within the Shakahola Forest as a sanctuary from what he claimed was the fast-approaching apocalypse. As he preached that the world was about to finish, officers say lots of his followers starved themselves to dying. Mr. Mackenzie denies telling them to take action.
In April, the police uncovered dozens of our bodies from graves within the forest linked to the pastor. The revelations rapidly gripped the nation, with many questioning why safety and intelligence officers did not detect the disappearances of victims early on.
President William Ruto, an evangelical Christian, in contrast the episode to “terrorism” and appointed a fee to analyze the deaths.
Mr. Kindiki, the inside minister, stated the forest could be become a nationwide memorial “in order that Kenyans and the world don’t forget what occurred right here.”
However from the outset, neighborhood activists and human rights teams reproached the federal government, urging officers to supply the survivors and the victims’ households with monetary compensation.
The case has run into many roadblocks, with victims’ households and activists saying that the authorized course of is shifting too slowly. A few of the cult members have refused to eat whereas staying at a rescue heart and needed to be given psychiatric and psychological well being assist. And a few of the attorneys representing Mr. Mackenzie and his co-defendants additionally pulled out of the case final June, citing frustration with the federal government over the period of time they got to seek the advice of and put together their shoppers.
Activists have additionally raised issues that the prosecution was treating a few of the victims as perpetrators as a substitute of specializing in Mr. Mackenzie and his shut associates.
Most of the recovered our bodies haven’t undergone DNA testing to establish them, stated Shipeta Mathias Hezron, the Fast Response officer with the Haki Africa rights group. And whereas Tuesday’s charging is a step ahead, Mr. Hezron stated the case was a good distance from being over.
“Allow them to cost those that participated within the crime, compelled individuals to starve or killed them,” he stated in a telephone interview. “However for these struggling, there will likely be no closure anytime quickly.”
Mohamed Ahmed contributed reporting from Mombasa, Kenya.
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