Initial autopsies show children starved, asphyxiated in Kenyan cult
Nairobi, KenyaReuters The bodies of several children exhumed in eastern Kenya showed signs of starvation and in some cases asphyxiation, a government pathologist said on Monday, as investigators began the first autopsies on over 100 people linked to a doomsday cult. On Monday investigators said they had completed 10 autopsies, comprising nine children aged between […]
Children account for majority of Kenyan cult deaths – interior minister
Nairobi, KenyaReuters Children account for most of the 109 bodies so far recovered in mass graves linked to a cult in Kenya, the interior minister said on Friday, the latest details in a case that has shocked the country and prompted calls for tighter regulation of religious fringe groups. Followers of the Good News International […]
“It got us by surprise”: As death toll mounts in Kenya church, local clergy wonder at scale of indoctrination
FREDRICK NZWILI, of Religion News Service, reports from Kenya…
Kenyan cult deaths at 73; President likens them to terrorism
Nairobi, Kenya AP Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday compared the dozens of starvation deaths among the followers of a pastor in the south of the country with the results of terrorist acts, as the new death toll rose to 73. He maintained that the pastor, Paul Makenzi, who is in police custody, should be […]
Number of bodies exhumed from suspected Kenyan cult graves jumps to 47
Nairobi, Kenya Reuters Kenyan police have now exhumed the bodies of 47 people thought to be followers of a Christian cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death. Police near the coastal town of Malindi started exhuming bodies on Friday from the Shakahola forest. Kenya police officers stand guard […]
Japan’s funeral for divisive slain PM Shinzo Abe fuels backlash
Tokyo, JapanReuters Japan will honour former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a rare state funeral on Tuesday, a ceremony that has become a flashpoint for public anger over political scandal and deepened opposition to successor Fumio Kishida. Abe’s assassination in July touched off a series of revelations about ties between lawmakers in the ruling Liberal […]
Essay: What is a cult?
MATHEW SCHMALZ, a professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in the US state of Massachusetts, looks at what we mean when we talk about a ‘cult’ or ‘cult leader’…