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A doomsday cult chief whom the Kenyan authorities say ordered his congregants to starve themselves to loss of life 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 spiritual 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 decide ordered that the cult chief, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, and the others who’re accused bear psychological well being evaluations earlier than dealing with any costs.
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 look 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, in response to 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 legal professionals, in response to video broadcast on tv. Armed cops had been stationed inside and out of doors 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, in response to 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 loss of life. Mr. Mackenzie denies telling them to take action.
In April, the police uncovered dozens of our bodies from graves within the forest related to the pastor. The revelations shortly 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 can be turned into a national 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 number of the legal professionals 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 purchasers.
Activists have additionally raised issues that the prosecution was treating a number 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 determine 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 great distance from being over.
“Allow them to cost those that participated within the crime, pressured folks to starve or killed them,” he stated in a cellphone interview. “However for these struggling, there can be no closure anytime quickly.”
Mohamed Ahmed contributed reporting from Mombasa, Kenya.
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