Kenyan cult survivors who still refuse to eat are accused of suicide

The emaciated survivors of a doomsday cult in Kenya, which authorities say ordered its followers to starve themselves, they held hands and leaned on each other as they stumbled into a courtroom on Thursday to be charged with attempted suicide.

The cult’s 65 members refuse to eat their meals at a shelter where they are being cared for. East African nation.

The followers of Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, an evangelical minister who authorities say told members of his church to starve their children and themselves to meet Jesus, appeared at the Shanzu Law Courts in the port city of Mombasa with their few possessions and bags. Some of them, looking thin and weak, fell asleep during the procedure.

Although there was speculation that the survivors would be sent to prison to await trial, the magistrate, Joe Omido, followed recommendations from Kenya’s national human rights watchdog to return them to the shelter.

As of this week, 318 bodies have been exhumed from Shakahola Forest, an 800-acre forest area where the pastor and his congregants lived and where the deceased were buried in shallow graves, at least since 2021. At least 613 people are still missing. county officials said, while 95 others have been rescued so far.

The case, which first came to public attention in April, has shocked Kenya, with human rights groups and observers questioning how police and intelligence agencies have failed to prevent the deaths for so long.

In a country where freedom of religion is enshrined in the constitution, the affair also raises questions about whether authorities should regulate religious institutions. The gruesome deaths of so many people have raised concerns about the need to detect and tackle religious extremism.

Kenya’s President William Ruto, a devout Christian and the country’s first evangelical leader, has appointed a commission to investigate the killings. Kithure Kindiki, the cabinet secretary of the Kenyan interior ministry, said it would be forest turned into a national monument. But rights groups have argued that the government should do more, including compensating the victims and their families.

Mr. Mackenzie was a taxi driver before founding Good News International Church and turned himself into an evangelical minister nearly two decades ago. As his congregation grew, he promoted the Shakahola Forest as a refuge from the approaching end of time.

But instead, the forest has become a crime scene, dominating coverage in major newspapers and television programs in Kenya. While many people died of starvation in the forest, government pathologists have said others also died of suffocation and strangulation.

Mr. Mackenzie has maintained that he has not ordered anyone in his congregation to fast or starve. But prosecutors claim he lured them to starvation, and they’re holding him and more than three dozen other associates on charges including murder and terrorism.

The human rights watchdog, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, had criticized the decision to charge the victims with attempted suicide and called on the government to provide them with psychiatric and mental health care rather than prosecute them.

Attempted suicide is considered an offense under Kenya Penal Code, punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to two years. The crime is a remnant of British colonial laws.

In his statement, Mr Omido said that the victims should be returned to the shelter, given counseling and a psychological assessment and closely monitored. He ordered a new hearing on June 29. One person, who refused to comply with a mental assessment or receive medical care, was sent to prison after the hearing.

Mr. Kindiki, the Minister of the Interior, has said the government had “a watertight case” that would prove that Mr Mackenzie and others had committed “charges of genocide and crimes against humanity”.

Unlike his followers, Mr. Mackenzie eats in prison, authorities say.

Even as he faces serious charges in court, Mr Mackenzie’s defense has been tested.

This week, two of his lawyers, who also represented three dozen other defendants, withdrew from the case citing frustration with the government over a lack of adequate access to their clients or because they had been given enough time to prepare.

A third lawyer said he would stay to defend Mr Mackenzie in court.

“We were simply following the law to make sure his interests as a suspect were followed,” Elisha Komora, one of the lawyers who stepped down from representing Mr. Mackenzie, said in a telephone interview.