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Kenyan doomsday cult leader charged with murder of 200 followers

Published

3 months ago

February 6, 2024

Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie

Kenyan doomsday cult leader charged with murder of 200 followers

A Kenyan court on Tuesday charged the leader of a starvation cult and dozens of suspected accomplices with murder over the deaths of nearly 200 people in a forest near the Indian Ocean.

Self-proclaimed pastor, Paul Mackenzie, who has already been charged with terrorism, manslaughter as well as child torture and cruelty, is alleged to have incited hundreds of his acolytes to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus”.

On Tuesday, Mackenzie and 29 other suspects pleaded not guilty to 191 counts of murder, according to court documents seen by AFP.

A 31st suspect was deemed to lack the mental fitness to stand trial and ordered to return to the Malindi High Court in a month’s time.

The cult leader has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

He was arrested in April last year after bodies were found in the Shakahola forest, with the grisly discoveries provoking horror across the world.

Autopsies revealed that the majority of the 429 victims had died of hunger.

But others, including children, appeared to have been strangled, beaten or suffocated.

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The case dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”, led the government to flag the need for tighter control of fringe denominations.

A largely Christian nation, Kenya has struggled to regulate unscrupulous churches and cults that dabble in criminality.

Court documents have described Good News International Ministries founded by Mackenzie as “an organised criminal group (which) engaged in organised criminal activities”, leading to the death of hundreds of followers.

Questions have been raised about how Mackenzie managed to evade law enforcement despite a history of extremism and previous legal cases.

A Senate Commission of Inquiry reported in October that the father of seven had faced charges in 2017 for extreme preaching.

He was acquitted of charges of radicalisation in 2017 for illegally providing school teaching after rejecting the formal educational system that he claimed was not in line with the Bible.

In 2019, he was also accused of links to the death of two children believed to have been starved, suffocated and then buried in a shallow grave in Shakahola. He was released on bail pending trial.

There are more than 4,000 churches registered in the East African country of 53 million people, according to government figures.

Previous efforts to regulate religious institutions in Kenya have been fiercely opposed as attempts to undermine constitutional guarantees for the division of church and state.

Kenyan doomsday cult leader charged with murder of 200 followers

metro

Rainstorms kill seven, many others injured

Published

8 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Trends Admin

Rainstorms kill seven, many others injured

No fewer than seven people have been confirmed dead as rainstorms affect Houston, Texas, authorities announced Friday.

The three new deaths occurred after Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States, was slammed Thursday by severe rain and winds gusting up to 100 miles (160 kilometres) per hour, leaving downtown streets coated in glass from broken windows.

Residential areas were littered with downed trees and power wires, and the National Weather Service reported that a tornado had touched down in Cypress.

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According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, the new victims included an 85-year-old woman who died after her mobile home was struck by lightning and caught fire.

A 60-year-old man was found unresponsive and pronounced dead after going to his truck to try and power his oxygen tank after electricity was cut across wide swaths of the storm-hit area.

A 57-year-old man collapsed and died while trying to move a downed power pole. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Thursday.

Rainstorms kill seven, many others injured

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Police inspector dismissed, three others demoted over N29.8m theft

Published

8 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Trends Admin

Force Public Relations Officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Olumuyiwa Adejobi

Police inspector dismissed, three others demoted over N29.8m theft

Adabo Mohammed, a police inspector has been dismissed over alleged involvement in robbery and kidnapping in the federal capital territory (FCT).

Announcing this on Friday, May 17, the Nigeria Police Force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi said Mohammed and five others were members of an armed robbery gang allegedly responsible for the stealing of N29.8 million from a victim during a robbery operation in the Gwagwalada area of Abuja.

The dismissed officer was also part of a gang that kidnapped one Ikechukwu Emmanuel Okafor, in the Tunga Maje area of Abuja and collected N4.4 million in ransom. He further revealed that Mohammed has been charged to court.

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Adejobi also disclosed that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun has also approved the demotion of three inspectors to the rank of sergeant over alleged extortion.

The demoted officers as Osagie Efford, Semiu Agbekin, and Francis Ahuen, who were attached to the special tactical squad (STS) in the FCT. It was gathered that they intercepted an unregistered Mercedes Benz at the Gwarinpa area of the territory and “forced the occupants to part with the total sum of N29.4m”.

Adejobi added;

“While the monies have been returned to the complainants, the officers were subjected to orderly room trial in line with extant laws, and have been demoted.”

Police inspector dismissed, three others demoted over N29.8m theft

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Breaking: Women protest against return of armed Okuama youths (+ Photos)

Published

9 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Trends Admin

Breaking: Women protest against return of armed Okuama youths (+ Photos)

The women of Okoloba community in Bomadi local government area, weekend, protested against what they called the return of armed youths of Okuama in Ughelli South local government area, who they alleged were threatening the peace of the riverine area.

The placard carrying women, led by the chairlady of Okoloba community, Mrs Timipakebi Goodwin, and secretary, Mrs Mary Koibi, staged a peace protest on black attires along the coastal fringe of Okoloba community, chanting against violence and bloodbath, as well as sending an S.O.S. to the federal government to come to their aid.

Some inscriptions on the placards read: ‘We say No to violence’, ‘Enough of the killings on our land’, ‘Armed Okuama youths returning in a commando style’, ‘We say No to the return of armed youths of Okuama’, ‘Resettle Okuama people among their Ewu brothers in Ughelli South LGA’, ‘We mourn the killing of the 17 soldiers’ and among others.

The chairlady of Okoloba, Mrs Goodwin, speaking to newsmen with a written address that was made available to security apparatuses, which include the police, DSS, NSCDC, JTF as well as the acting chairman of Bomadi local government council, noted that the latest killing by the youths of Okuama showed that they could kill human beings at the slightest provocation.

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The women’s presentations as well as the written address read in part: “First, we the women of Okoloba community sympathize with the killing of 17 soldiers and officers of the Nigerian army on a peace and rescue mission to Okuama, following the kidnap of our son. We sincerely mourn their untimely death and pray for the repose of their souls. We also pray for their families.

“However, less than 24 hours after the exit of the troops from Okuama, fresh crisis erupted with another neighbouring community, culminating in the killing of one person while three other persons were seriously injured. The person who was killed and those sustaining machete wounds were alleged to have gone there to loot.

“The latest killing showed that the people of Okuama can kill a human at the slightest provocation; the sanctity of human life means nothing to them. It also shows that neighbouring Ijaw communities like Okoloba are not safe.

“So, resetting the people of Okuama in their present location, which is in-between communities in Bomadi local government area, is an attempt to encourage further communal clashes and bloodbath.

“Just last week, youths of Okuama community came out of the Mein-toruabubor creek, which leads to Ewu, on three speedboats and all of them on camouflage. They shot sporadically in the air before proceeding to OKuama. They moved to and fro the creek three times, and at every time they shot their guns in the air at the entrance of the creek.

“We are calling on the federal government to come to our aid, and the panacea to these incessant clashes and killings is for the government to relocate Okuama to Ewu clan in Ughelli South Local Government Area, where they truly and rightly belong.