178 members of Good News International Church missing in Kenya: Red Cross
The Switzerland-based international humanitarian organisation, Red Cross, says 178 members of the controversial Kenya church, Good News International Church, are currently missing while 50 bodies have been exhumed across several sites in the country.
“We are working with the county government to see if we can enhance the capacity of the morgue. What we are doing is to see if we can have a mobile morgue so that we can accommodate numbers that are increasing day by day,” said Hassan Musa, the Kenya Red Cross regional manager for the Coast region.
The church made global headlines with the discovery of a mass grave of members of the religious cult believed to have starved themselves to death as a guarantee of eternal life with Jesus on the order of the church’s founder, Paul Mackenzie.
Mr Mackenzie was arrested more than a week ago when four of his followers were starved to death before the investigation led to the discovery of many mass graves, including one at the pastor’s land in Shakahola forest, where 11 bodies were recovered while 29 people were rescued on Monday.
Recovery of dead bodies of Mackenzie’s followers continues in the Kenyan town of Malindi where the country’s security forces and residents of the community are helping in the exhumation effort of members who followed the doctrines of the Good News International Church.
Authorities have recovered 50 bodies from Shakahola forest since then.
Japhet Charo, who lives in the village of Furunzi where Mackenzie preached to his followers, began attending the church a year after it was opened in 2005 and had known the preacher since the 1990s when he was still a taxi driver, said the incident brought “sadness” to everyone.
“There is sadness in everyone, not just those who went to church but also those who did not,” Mr Charo said.
“They are upset about this whole situation that we have never seen or heard of. People are wondering what kind of benefit a situation like this brings. The pastor said children will die first, followed by mothers and men. We’re not sure how such deaths would benefit him.”
The father of eight added: “There were rules in the church that women had to cut their hair and not wear makeup, and he encouraged children not to go to school because there was nowhere in the Bible that said children had to go to school.”
“When it came to that kind of teaching, I noticed some political games being played in the church and decided not to attend.”
William Ruto, the president of Kenya said the actions of the preacher, who only “pretends and postures as a pastor” is no different from that of a terrorist.
“What we are seeing in Kilifi in Shakahola is akin to terrorists,” Mr Ruto said. “There is no difference between Mr Mackenzie, who pretends and postures as a pastor when in fact, is a terrible criminal.”
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