NAIROBI: The chief of a Kenyan hunger sect went on trial on Monday for manslaughter over the deaths of greater than 400 of his followers in one of many world’s worst cult-related tragedies.
Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and dozens of different suspects pleaded not responsible in January to a number of counts of manslaughter, certainly one of a number of circumstances towards them over what is named the “Shakahola Forest Bloodbath“.
Mackenzie appeared in a Justice of the Peace’s court docket within the Indian Ocean port metropolis of Mombasa together with greater than 90 different suspects, prosecutors and court docket officers stated.
“There has by no means been a manslaughter case like this in Kenya,” prosecutor Alexander Jami Yamina advised AFP, including that they are going to be charged underneath a Kenyan regulation coping with suicide pacts.
“That is going to be a really distinctive manslaughter case.”
Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his followers to starve to demise with a view to “meet Jesus” in a case that provoked horror in Kenya and internationally.
He was arrested in April final yr after a number of our bodies have been first found within the distant Shakahola forest that lies inland from the Indian Ocean city of Malindi.
Rescuers spent many months looking the scrubland and have now unearthed round 448 our bodies from mass graves.
Autopsies revealed that almost all of victims had died of starvation. However others, together with youngsters, appeared to have been strangled, overwhelmed or suffocated.
Earlier court docket paperwork additionally stated that among the our bodies had their organs eliminated.
– Some our bodies launched to households –
At the very least 420 witnesses have been ready by the prosecutors, with the listening to scheduled to run for 4 days till Thursday.
“Because of the gravity of the case, now we have ready nicely,” Yamina stated.
A few of the witnesses will current testimonies in digicam.
The suspects, 55 males and 40 girls, went on trial final month on prices of terrorism over the Shakahola bloodbath, and in addition face separate circumstances of homicide and youngster torture and cruelty regarding the deaths, which prosecutors say occurred over time 2020 to 2023.
In March this yr, the authorities started releasing some victims’ our bodies to distraught family after months of painstaking work to establish them utilizing DNA. To this point 34 have been returned.
Mackenzie had arrange his Good Information Worldwide Church in 2003, however stated he closed it in 2019 and moved to Shakahola to arrange for what he had predicted can be the tip of the world in August final yr.
The grisly case led the federal government to flag the necessity for tighter management of fringe denominations, whereas questions have been raised about how Mackenzie managed to evade regulation enforcement regardless of a historical past of extremism and former authorized circumstances.
A fee arrange by President William Ruto to analyze the deaths and assessment laws governing non secular our bodies offered its report final month, urging for a hybrid mannequin of self-regulation and authorities oversight.
Separate stories by the Kenyan senate and a state-funded human rights watchdog have stated the authorities may have prevented the deaths.
Efforts to manage faith within the majority-Christian nation have usually been fiercely opposed previously as makes an attempt to undermine constitutional ensures for the division of church and state.
Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and dozens of different suspects pleaded not responsible in January to a number of counts of manslaughter, certainly one of a number of circumstances towards them over what is named the “Shakahola Forest Bloodbath“.
Mackenzie appeared in a Justice of the Peace’s court docket within the Indian Ocean port metropolis of Mombasa together with greater than 90 different suspects, prosecutors and court docket officers stated.
“There has by no means been a manslaughter case like this in Kenya,” prosecutor Alexander Jami Yamina advised AFP, including that they are going to be charged underneath a Kenyan regulation coping with suicide pacts.
“That is going to be a really distinctive manslaughter case.”
Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his followers to starve to demise with a view to “meet Jesus” in a case that provoked horror in Kenya and internationally.
He was arrested in April final yr after a number of our bodies have been first found within the distant Shakahola forest that lies inland from the Indian Ocean city of Malindi.
Rescuers spent many months looking the scrubland and have now unearthed round 448 our bodies from mass graves.
Autopsies revealed that almost all of victims had died of starvation. However others, together with youngsters, appeared to have been strangled, overwhelmed or suffocated.
Earlier court docket paperwork additionally stated that among the our bodies had their organs eliminated.
– Some our bodies launched to households –
At the very least 420 witnesses have been ready by the prosecutors, with the listening to scheduled to run for 4 days till Thursday.
“Because of the gravity of the case, now we have ready nicely,” Yamina stated.
A few of the witnesses will current testimonies in digicam.
The suspects, 55 males and 40 girls, went on trial final month on prices of terrorism over the Shakahola bloodbath, and in addition face separate circumstances of homicide and youngster torture and cruelty regarding the deaths, which prosecutors say occurred over time 2020 to 2023.
In March this yr, the authorities started releasing some victims’ our bodies to distraught family after months of painstaking work to establish them utilizing DNA. To this point 34 have been returned.
Mackenzie had arrange his Good Information Worldwide Church in 2003, however stated he closed it in 2019 and moved to Shakahola to arrange for what he had predicted can be the tip of the world in August final yr.
The grisly case led the federal government to flag the necessity for tighter management of fringe denominations, whereas questions have been raised about how Mackenzie managed to evade regulation enforcement regardless of a historical past of extremism and former authorized circumstances.
A fee arrange by President William Ruto to analyze the deaths and assessment laws governing non secular our bodies offered its report final month, urging for a hybrid mannequin of self-regulation and authorities oversight.
Separate stories by the Kenyan senate and a state-funded human rights watchdog have stated the authorities may have prevented the deaths.
Efforts to manage faith within the majority-Christian nation have usually been fiercely opposed previously as makes an attempt to undermine constitutional ensures for the division of church and state.
