What drove Kenyan cult members to starve themselves?
89 bodies have so far been uncovered in Shakahola forest in Kenya. They’d all been members of the Good News International Church.
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.
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Africa Daily
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