Africa Daily
Africa Daily
What drove Kenyan cult members to starve themselves?
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27 April 2023
Available for over a year
In a remote and hidden area in the Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast, a grisly and distressing operation is taking place: around 60 mass graves are gradually being dug up and the bodies they contain exhumed.
The authorities were called in after it was reported that members of a cult had been persuaded to starve themselves to death as a way to be accepted into heaven.
So far 89 bodies have been exhumed – but the Red Cross has said that 112 people have been reported missing.
When police arrived they also found 29 sick and weak survivors - but many continued to refuse food.
The leader of the church - Pastor Paul Mackenzie - has been arrested.
For Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja hears about this case from the human rights worker who first alerted the police – and also asks why people get lured into religious cults in the first place?
GUESTS: Hussein Khalid from HAKI Africa and Dr Kennedy Ongaro of Daystar University in Nairobi.
