All posts tagged: Paul Mackenzie Nthenge

Kenya starts to hand over to relatives the bodies of 429 members of a doomsday cult

Kenya starts to hand over to relatives the bodies of 429 members of a doomsday cult

Published by Sam

[ad_1] NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s government on Tuesday began handing over to relatives the bodies of 429 members of a doomsday cult at the center of a legal case that has shocked the country. Exhumed bodies from a vast rural area in coastal Kenya have shown signs of starvation and strangulation. Cult leader Paul Mackenzie is accused of asking his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus and now faces charges that include murder. Authorities are using DNA testing to help identify bodies and their families. On Tuesday, the first bodies were handed over to relatives. Emotions ran high at the Malindi mortuary as families collected loved ones for reburial. Some wailed, overwhelmed. Francis Wanje, a father who lost his daughter and seven other family members, pointed at a hearse carrying four bodies. “We lost eight members of our family,” Wanje said. “We were supposed to get five, but were told that one of the children did not match the DNA. “So now we have been given only four (bodies). So we …

The suspects in a Kenyan doomsday cult are ordered to be hospitalized after a hunger strike

The suspects in a Kenyan doomsday cult are ordered to be hospitalized after a hunger strike

Published by Sam

[ad_1] NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan magistrate Tuesday ordered the main suspect in a doomsday starvation cult and 94 of his followers to receive emergency care after some of the suspects had to be carried into the courtroom to answer manslaughter charges, too frail and weak to “even open their eyes” after an apparent hunger strike At the law courts in the coastal town of Mombasa, Chief Magistrate Alex Ithuku directed Paul Mackenzie, his wife Rhoda Maweu and others charged with 238 counts of manslaughter to be escorted to hospital for an immediate doctors’ examination. The visibly emaciated suspects pleaded not guilty on all counts, which were read out over four and half hours. Doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie and some of his followers have been blamed for the deaths of 429 members of his Good News International Church, many of whom are believed to have starved themselves in the belief that by doing so they would meet Jesus Christ before the world ends. This took place between January 2021 and September 2023 at …

Kenyan court rules pastor accused of starving his congregation is mentally fit for trial

Kenyan court rules pastor accused of starving his congregation is mentally fit for trial

Published by Sam

[ad_1] NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, the self–proclaimed Kenyan pastor who is accused of orchestrating the deaths of more than 400 members of his congregation by starvation, was ruled mentally fit to stand trial by the High Court at Malindi on Tuesday (Feb. 6). The taxi driver-turned-charismatic preacher faces multiple charges, including murder and terrorism, after being accused of convincing members of his church — some say “cult” — to pray and fast until death, with the goal of meeting Jesus. Authorities allege that when the congregants died, the pastor and his alleged accomplices buried the bodies in shallow graves in the nearby Shakahola forest, in southeastern Kenya. Nthenge never adopted the flamboyant designer suits and footwear of the most prominent African televangelists, but according to the Kenyan authorities he managed to convince dozens of men and women that the world would end on April 15, 2023. “He should be held accountable for the deaths of many innocent people, who believed in him as one that God has send to give them hope …