Kenyan justice announced on Tuesday that it would prosecute Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie for "terrorism" after the death of 109 people in a forest in southeastern Kenya where members of his sect met .
He is accused of pushing his followers of his International Church of Good News to starve ’to meet Jesus’ in Shakahola Forest, a case that has sparked fear and misunderstanding in the religious East African country. . The former taxi driver turned pastor appeared in a Malindi city court on Tuesday alongside eight co-defendants. He appeared calm, dressed in a pink and black sports jacket, a pink shirt and brown pants, an AFP journalist noted.
At the end of the hearing, he was transferred to Mombasa, the country’s second city about 100 kilometers away, where there is "a court authorized to deal with cases under the Prevention of Terrorism Act", said prosecutor Vivian Kambaga.
At the end of April, after the discovery of the first dozen corpses in this case, Kenyan President William Ruto had promised measures against those who "use religion to advance a shady and unacceptable ideology", comparing them to "terrorists".
Another pastor, the country’s most famous, Ezekiel Odero, is due to appear in court in Mombasa on Tuesday. The court must rule on a request by prosecutors to keep him in detention for 30 days while they investigate his possible involvement in what is now called the "Shakahola Forest massacre".
According to the prosecution, "there is credible information linking the bodies exhumed (...) in Shakahola" to "several innocent and vulnerable followers (of the Odero church) who are said to have died". His lawyers denounce an unfounded detention. "No evidence has been brought. (...) So far there is no complaint" against Ezekiel Odero in this case, declared to the press one of the lawyers, Cliff Ombeta, in front of the court where were brought together a few dozen faithful, praying and singing.
Hunger and asphyxiation
The discovery of more than a hundred bodies, the majority of them children, in the Shakahola forest has shaken Kenya for several weeks. This assessment is still provisional, the search operations for mass graves not having been completed in this forest on the Kenyan coast, where followers of Pastor Mackenzie followed his precepts of fasting until death while awaiting the coming of Jesus.
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