Kenyan Cult Leader Instructed Followers To Starve Themselves To Meet Jesus
Since last week, police in Kenya have exhumed 95 bodies of people believed to have starved to death, from shallow graves.
The deaths have been linked to Pastor Paul Mackenzie, a controversial preacher at Good News International Church who is accused of brainwashing his followers and leading them to their deaths..
Police say, Mackenzie, a televangelist, indoctrinated his followers, asking them to abandon “earthly life”.
Al Jazeera reported that the controversial preacher asked his followers to meet at his 325-hectare (800-acre) farm in a village called Shakahola in Kilifi county for a fast “to meet Jesus”.
Mackenzie allegedly instructed his followers to quit their jobs, drop out of formal schools, stop feeding on “worldly food”, and not seek medical treatment in hospitals when sick.
The church members met on Saturdays under a tree from 9 AM to 5 PM for “life lessons”.
He allegedly told them that the fast would count only if they gathered together, and offered them his farm as a fasting venue.
Mackenzie also ordered his followers to destroy all documents given by the government, including national IDs and birth certificates.
On 13 April this year, the Kenyan government intervened after two children were reported to have starved and suffocated to death by their parents on Mackenzie’s advice on March 16 and 17.
Investigations by the police led them to Shakahola where 16 emaciated people were found, four of whom died before reaching the hospital.
At least 27 people were rescued and admitted to the hospital for severe malnutrition but some of them are still refusing to eat.
The followers say they were told to starve to avoid going to hell.
Residents said about 300 people lived on the Shakahola farm.
Coastal Area regional boss Rhoda Onyancha told reporters on Wednesday that a 30-day curfew had been imposed in the area. She said:
The total number of those who have lost their lives is 95, and because this is an area where we are going on with arrests also, so far we have 22 in custody. Nobody is allowed to go inside.
President William Ruto on Monday said the cult leader belongs in prison as “what is being witnessed in Shakahola is akin to terrorism”.
Anthony Muheria, the archbishop of Nyeri Catholic Archdiocese in central Kenya, said:
Religion cannot be and should not be the cause of people losing lives through radical extremism that people have to do exceptional things to gain blessings from God.
Mackenzie surrendered to the police on 14 April and is still in custody pending investigations.
Mackenzie was arrested in 2017 on charges of “radicalisation” after urging children not to attend school because education was not recognised by the Bible.
Two years later, he closed the church and moved to the coastal town of Shakahola.
He was arrested again in March this year after two children starved to death in the custody of their parents.
Mackenzie was released on bail of 100 000 Kenyan shillings ($700) and told local media he was “shocked about the accusations”.
But less than three weeks later, a police raid in a forest near the coastal town of Malindi led investigators to exhume the woodland for mass graves.
More: Pindula News
