Status: 04/24/2023 1:50 p.m
At least 58 bodies have been found on the property of a suspected cult leader in Kenya. Other graves are not yet open. The man is said to have instructed his followers to starve themselves to death.
At least 58 bodies have been found on the property of a suspected cult leader in Kenya. Police Chief John Kemboi said there were other graves on the Paul Makenzi site in Malindi that have not yet been opened. Makenzi was arrested on April 14. He is accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death. Police have applied to keep the suspect in custody longer.
Starved to “Meet Jesus”
After information from the public, the police had carried out a raid on the property. There she first found 15 emaciated people, four of whom later died. The followers said they starved at Makenzi’s direction to “meet Jesus.” Officials began digging at the site on Friday.
Four children are reportedly among the most recent bodies found. The community lived accordingly isolated in a forest. From there, the security forces and the Red Cross saved two believers from starvation over the weekend. Eleven other people were taken to the hospital during a police operation a week and a half ago.
An abandoned house in the woods outside the seaside town of Malindi where many buried bodies have been exhumed.
Image: AFP
Call for stricter controls
The accused is on a hunger strike in detention. He had been arrested twice before – in 2019 and in March this year. It was about the death of children. In the previous cases, Makenzi was released on bail. Local politicians have asked a court not to release the pastor from prison this time.
Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki has now called for stricter controls for religious communities, as local media reports. “While the state continues to show respect for religious freedom, this disgrace to our conscience must not only result in the harshest punishment for the perpetrators of this cruelty to so many people,” Minister Kithure Kindiki was quoted as saying. In addition, churches, mosques, temples and synagogues would have to be regulated more strictly in the future.