The number of bodies exhumed in the Shakahola forest in Kenya has risen to 251 after 9 more bodies were found on Tuesday following the resumption of the exhumations.
Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha said that the number of rescues remains 95 and arrests 35, reported <a href="https://ntvkenya.co.ke/news/shakahola-horror-nine-more-bodies-exhumed-death-toll-at-251/">NTV</a>.
At least 93 bodies have undergone DNA tests.
Only 19 bodies have been identified by family members as 613 people were reported to be missing.
The Shakahola massacre is linked to <a href="https://pindula.co.zw/Paul_Mackenzie_(Kenya_Cult_Pastor)">Pastor Paul Mackenzie</a>, a Kenyan religious leader who allegedly led what is now referred to as the Kenyan starvation cult.
Mackenzie allegedly convinced more than 200 followers to fast themselves to death, believing that they would have a chance to get to heaven before the end of the world.
He founded and leads the Good News International Church which later relocated to Malindi, a coastal town in Kenya near a forest called Shakahola in Kilifi county where he has a farm.
Mackenzie used the farm as the burial ground for his followers who starved themselves to death under his orders, hence the Shakahola Forest Massacre.
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Kenya: Shakahola Massacre Death Toll Rises To 251

A Kenyan preacher who claims to be Jesus Christ and was arrested last week was released from police custody on Tuesday, 16 May, <a href="https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/89342-yesu-wa-tongaren-released-no-charges-pressed-heres-why">reported Kenyans</a>.
Bungoma Principal Magistrate Tom Olando ordered the Police to release Yesu wa Tongaren, whose real name is Eliud Wekesa after the prosecution stated that findings by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) did not offer any grounds to implicate him.
The prosecution, therefore, asked Principal Magistrate Tom Olando to release him and close the case.
Olando further ordered police not to interfere with Wekesa activities in Tongaren.
Wekesa, who is the founder and leader of the New Jerusalem Church, appeared before the Bungoma Law Courts, where one of the 2022 presidential candidates, Professor George Wajackoyah, represented him.
In the hearing on Tuesday, an Office of Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) officer informed the Court that the State had decided to close Wekesa’s file.
Wekesa briefly expressed his dissatisfaction with the arrest and arraignment, arguing that he fully complied with the investigators.
He further argued that he accompanied DCI officers to his home, where they investigated his religious doctrines. He said:
<blockquote>
Tulienda na maafisa wa polisi kwa boma wafanye uchunguzi, na bahati nzuri ilikuwa siku ya Jumamosi ambaye huwa ni siku ya Sabato. Polisi walihesabu sadaka wakapata ni shillingi 225 na nyanya kidogo na vitunguu. (I accompanied the police to my home to aid them in the investigations. Fortunately, it was a Saturday – the Sabbath. They counted Ksh225 offering, cherry tomatoes and onions.)
</blockquote>
Yesu wa Tongaren was being investigated for suspected cultic activities, the prosecution stated on 12 May while appearing before Bungoma Principal Magistrate.
The preacher was also facing investigations into possible activities relating to radicalisation, money laundering, and acquiring proceeds of crime.
Investigators also probed possible links to teaching radical ideologies to his followers, some of whom were minors.
Wekesa was first arrested on 10 May 2023, and he had been in police custody since then.
He welcomed the court’s ruling, with his lawyers asking the Government to stop harassing religious leaders as everyone is free to worship according to Article 32 of the constitution.
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Kenyan Court Orders Police To Release Preacher "Yesu wa Tongaren"

A Kenyan man who claims to be Jesus Christ was on Friday locked up by a court in Bungoma County for four more days to allow a mental health evaluation.
According to <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/bungoma/-yesu-wa-tongaren-held-4-more-days-for-mental-checks-4232254">The Nation</a>, Eliud Wekesa, alias Yesu wa Tongaren, who leads New Jerusalem Church, is accused of running a religious cult in Tongaren, purporting to be Jesus Christ.
Elijah Macharia, the Bungoma County director of criminal investigations said that they want to ascertain the preacher’s mental status in their investigation into alleged offences including cult activities.
Wekesa will be held at Bungoma Police Station, Principal Magistrate Tom Mark Olando said in his ruling.
Olando ordered that investigations be conducted within four days to enable the court to give a ruling on whether or not Wekesa can take a plea. Said Olando:
<blockquote>
The court expects the DCI to take the accused for a psychiatric assessment, conduct thorough investigations of his church and search his residential premises within four days.
</blockquote>
Before his appearance in court on Thursday afternoon, Wekesa was questioned by investigators for three consecutive days.
He spent Thursday night in a cell after a court in Bungoma said it would rule on his fate on Friday.
The police had asked the court to allow them to detain him for seven days for interrogation and further investigations.
Macharia, in a sworn affidavit, claimed the accused had refused to undergo the checks.
The police further requested the court to grant them a search warrant for Wekesa’s house and place of worship.
They also argued that he would interfere with witnesses if released from their custody.
Wekesa’s lawyer Wamalwa Simiyu objected to the request to detain his client and accused the police of arresting and arraigning him without conducting proper investigations.
The case will be mentioned on 16 May. A mention simply means where a matter is “mentioned” in Court.
It is where the matter is not formally listed for a plea of guilty or a plea of not guilty.
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Kenyan Man Who Claims To Be Jesus Christ Arrested

The death of almost 100 people, among children, at Kenyan self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge’s 325-hectare (800-acre) farm in a village called Shakahola in Kilifi county has led to calls for governments to regulate religious groups in order to weed out destructive cults.
Nthenge allegedly ordered his followers to starve themselves to death as the only way to escape eternal damnation and meet Jesus.
A religious cult is a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous.
Religious cults often have a charismatic leader who claims to have special knowledge or insight into spiritual matters, and they may require strict adherence to certain beliefs, practices, or lifestyle choices.
<h2>Why Do People Join Religious Cults?</h2>
While people join cults for different reasons, there are some common factors that may contribute to someone joining a cult:
<ul>
<li>a desire for spiritual guidance or community</li>
<li>a need for a sense of belonging</li>
<li>vulnerability due to difficult life circumstances</li>
<li>susceptibility to manipulation or brainwashing</li>
<li>a charismatic leader who promises answers and solutions to life’s problems</li>
<li>a severe lack of something, for example, affection at home</li>
<li>a psychological or physical dependency of the members on the leader</li>
<li>false promises of what you get when you join the group or what you become, for example, riches or miracles</li>
</ul>
Once one joins a cult, sometimes it is difficult to leave the group. Here is why:
<ul>
<li>people feel that the group offers them a sense of belonging and purpose</li>
<li>cults use tactics such as isolation from family and friends, sleep deprivation, and other forms of psychological manipulation to control their members and keep them from leaving</li>
<li>members may also fear physical harm or threats if they try to leave</li>
<li>members may feel that leaving would mean giving up a critical part of their identity or belief system</li>
<li>former cult members may experience psychological trauma or difficulty adjusting to life outside the group.</li>
</ul>
Cults can be extremely dangerous for their members and for society as a whole. They can cause psychological, financial, and physical harm, isolation from loved ones and cult members sometimes engage in violent behavior toward outsiders or even their own members.
In the case of the Kenyan pastor, his preaching relates to the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies about Judgement Day.
According to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65412822">BBC News</a>, the church’s online content also features posts about the end of the world, impending doom and the supposed dangers of science.
He repeatedly references the “New World Order” and is highly skeptical of modern technology.
Nthenge previously claimed that a plan by the Kenyan government to establish a unique identification number for citizens to access government services was the “mark of the beast”.
The “mark of the beast” is a term that appears in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. According to the text, the mark will be required in order to participate in economic transactions, and those who refuse to take it will be persecuted.
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Reasons Why People Join, And Stay In Cults

The discovery last week of mass graves, many housing the remains of children apparently starved by their parents, in Kenya has shocked many people not only in the East African country but around the world.
Kenyan authorities have so far discovered 95 bodies of people who starved to death at self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge’s ranch in the Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi.
After closing his Good News International Church in 2019, Nthenge led his followers deep into the Shakahola forest, allegedly convincing them to starve to death to meet God.
Nthenge’s church has been described as a cult, a pejorative term for a religious group that falls outside the mainstream and, by implication, engages in questionable activities, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/cult">according to Britannica</a>.
Cults often have a charismatic leader who claims to have special knowledge or insight into spiritual matters, and they may require strict adherence to certain beliefs, practices, or lifestyle choices.
Zimbabwe has witnessed the rise of cult-like religious movements in the past decades.
The Independent End Time Message Church has been identified by some commentators as a cult.
The church was founded by Robert Martin Gumbura, who was convicted in 2014 on multiple counts of rape and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
<a href="https://africa.thegospelcoalition.org/video/how-to-spot-a-christian-cult/">Rodgers Atwebembeire</a> who is the  East Africa Regional Director of the Africa Centre for Apologetics Research (ACFAR) identified three characteristics of religious cults that Christians, or believers, need to be aware of. These are:
<ul>
<li>Cults or false religious groups distort the central teachings of the Christian faith such as the doctrine of the Trinity (the belief that God has revealed Himself as one God in three persons), the dual nature of Jesus (the Bible describing Jesus as both divine and human), and the teaching that salvation is by grace alone.</li>
<li>Cults or false religious groups elevate secondary doctrines of the Christian faith at the expense of the primary ones. They teach one must eat certain particular foods as a Christian, and that becomes a basis by which one will either go to heaven or not.</li>
<li>Cults or false religious groups might do what we call inventing new doctrines. They invent new doctrines that are not found in Scripture. They claim that their Church is the only true Church and anyone else who is in another Church apart from this one is lost.</li>
</ul>
Several years ago, the founder of the International House of Prayer (IHOP), Mike Bickle, created a list of seven ways to recognize the difference between a religious community and a cult. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/the-seven-signs-youre-in-a-cult/361400/">These are</a>:
<ul>
<li>Opposing critical thinking</li>
<li>Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving</li>
<li>Emphasizing special doctrines outside of scripture</li>
<li>Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders</li>
<li>Dishonoring the family unit</li>
<li>Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership)</li>
<li>Separation from the Church.</li>
</ul>
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Here Is How To Identify A Religious Cult

Kenyan authorities have imposed a 30-day dusk-to-dawn curfew on the 320-hectare ranch owned by a pastor who is accused of directing his followers to fast to death.
The ranch, which is near the town of Malindi, has been declared a “disturbed area and an operation zone.”
The country’s interior minister announced on Wednesday that for 30 days, the area will be subjected to a curfew between 6 PM to 6 AM.
However, human rights activists and journalists have criticised the move to bar them from accessing the ranch.
As of Thursday evening, the death toll in the cult investigation stood at 95.
On Wednesday, police took 22 people into custody during the search and rescue operation on the land.
Authorities have rescued 34 people from the property, while the Kenya Red Cross Society said that 314 people were still missing.
The owner of the ranch, pastor Paul Mackenzie, is set to remain in police custody until at least 2 May.
The director of public prosecutions, Noordin Haji, on Wednesday, ordered investigating officers to identify the assets of the suspects for purposes of preservation, confiscation, and forfeiture.
Meanwhile, a famous self-proclaimed televangelist Ezekiel Ombok Odero of the New Life Prayer Centre was arrested on Thursday on allegations of killing his followers.
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Kenyan Officials Impose Curfew On Cult Leader's Ranch

A prominent Kenyan evangelist, Pastor Ezekiel Odero, has been arrested and his church located on the coast has been shut down.
Kenyan police are currently conducting investigations into a religious sect led by another preacher, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, that has been linked to the death of almost a hundred people due to starvation.
Odero was arrested on Thursday hours after the police inspected a funeral home near his New Life Prayer Centre church in Mavueni, Kilifi county, reported <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/04/27/another-kenyan-pastor-arrested-amid-probe-into-cult-like-deaths/">africanews</a>.
Police said that they had established that morgue attendants had been collecting bodies at the church premises.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Coast regional commissioner Rhoda Onyancha said:
<blockquote>
This morning we arrested Pastor Ezekiel Odero on allegations of the deaths that have been occurring at his premises.
</blockquote>
Odero preacher has not responded to the allegations.
Police are also investigating Odero’s alleged relationship with Nthenge, who is said to have told followers to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus”.
By Wednesday, 26 April, Kenyan authorities had recovered 95 bodies of people suspected to have died of starvation and buried in shallow graves at Mackenzie Nthenge’s farm.
Nthenge, who is already in custody, has denied wrongdoing. He is due in court on 02 May.
According to <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/death-toll-hits-95-as-8-more-childrens-bodies-exhumed-from-kenyan-cult-leaders-homestead/2882332#">Anadolu Agency</a>, the rise of cult-like churches in Kenya has become a growing concern with some leaders using extreme teachings that put their followers’ lives at risk.
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