Kenyan authorities should have prevented cult deaths, president says

Kenyan government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths by starvation of more than 200 members of a Christian cult, President William Ruto has said, adding that he takes responsibility for the disaster.

Forensic experts and homicide detectives from Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations collect bodies of suspected followers of a Christian cult named Good News International Church that were exhumed from Shakahola forest, on 11 May 2023. REUTERS - STRINGER

Authorities accuse Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, of ordering his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the end of the world.

The death toll so far stands at 201, making it one of the worst cult-related disasters in recent history.

Of the 201, eight people died from emaciation after being rescued, while the rest have been exhumed mostly from mass graves in Shakahola forest in Kilifi County, in the country's south-east coastal region.

Given the presence of government agencies in the area, including police, intelligence services and the local administration, Mackenzie's activities should not have gone unnoticed, Ruto said.

"I am not taking it lightly. I am taking responsibility that as president this should not have happened. And certainly, some people who are responsible for this failure on the part of government will have to give an account," he said in a joint interview with Kenyan news outlets late on Sunday.

"It should not have happened when we have all the agencies," he said.

Shakahola massacre: What autopsies have revealed pic.twitter.com/UkjzubxA2H

— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) May 15, 2023

Commission of inquiry

Former taxi driver Mackenzie was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of the murder of two children by starvation and suffocation, but was then released on bail.

Relatives of his adherents say that after Mackenzie was freed he returned to Shakahola forest and moved forward his predicted date for the end of the world from August to 15 April.

Mackenzie surrendered to police on 14 April after police raided the forest where the church was based, rescuing 15 people who had been starving themselves.

Paul Mackenzie, 50, (left), appears at Malindi Law Courts, in Malindi, Kenya, May 2, 2023. REUTERS - STRINGER

Last week, a court denied Mackenzie bail. He has not yet been required to enter a plea after handing himself over to police last month.

George Kariuki, a lawyer representing Mackenzie, has said the self-styled pastor was cooperating with the investigation.

• St John Coltrane, Jesus the black African... Cults of Christ around the world
• The influence of the Mungiki sect in Kenya

Ten days ago, Ruto appointed a commission of inquiry into the deaths in Shakahola, and another task force to review regulations governing religious organisations in Kenya.

To date, attempts to regulate religion in the predominantly Christian country have been fiercely opposed, for fear they could undermine constitutional guarantees of the separation between church and state.

(with wires)