A Kenyan courtroom has ordered the exhumation of our bodies believed to be linked to suspected cult-related killings in Kilifi County, the identical area the place greater than 400 members of a doomsday cult had been found lifeless two years in the past, prosecutors mentioned on Wednesday.
“Investigators suspect a number of people had been murdered by means of hunger and suffocation,” the ODPP mentioned in an announcement on X. “The victims could have been starved and suffocated because of adopting and selling excessive non secular ideologies.”
The discovery has revived reminiscences of the 2023 Shakahola Forest tragedy, one of many world’s worst cult-related disasters, the place a whole bunch of our bodies had been exhumed. Prosecutors in that case accused cult chief Paul Mackenzie of ordering followers to starve themselves and their youngsters to dying so as to “go to heaven” earlier than the world ended. Mackenzie, who faces costs of homicide and terrorism, has denied the accusations.
Authorities mentioned the most recent investigation started after a number of youngsters within the space had been reported lacking and unaccounted for. The courtroom has ordered that the exhumations be adopted by postmortem examinations, DNA testing and toxicology evaluation to find out the reason for dying.
The case underscores the continued menace posed by extremist non secular teams within the nation. In April, Kenyan police recovered two our bodies and rescued 57 emaciated worshippers from a church in western Kenya.
