According to new testimonies, children were among the first to be starved to death in the closing days of a Christian doomsday cult in Kenya.
So far, police probing an apparent mass suicide have exhumed 201 bodies from a forest in the country’s southeast.
Children were slaughtered first, according to a former cult deputy preacher, who was commanded “to fast in the sun so they would die faster.”
Titus Katana stated that women and men would be the next to commit suicide.
Mr Katana, who is assisting authorities with the investigation, also revealed the alleged cruel treatment of the youngsters to the Sunday Times, claiming they were locked in huts for five days without food or drink.
“Then they wrapped them in blankets and buried them, even the ones still breathing,” he was quoted as saying.
It is claimed that the cult members were told that if they starved themselves to death, they would get to heaven faster.
Autopsies on several of the remains discovered in the vast Shakahola farm, near the coastal town of Malindi, revealed signs of starvation, suffocation, and beatings.
More than 600 people are still missing, supposedly members of the doomsday cult led by Pastor Paul Mackenzie.
Pastor Mackenzie, who is currently in police jail, stated that he shuttered his Good News International Church about two decades ago.
However, hundreds of his sermons that were still available online, some of which looked to be recorded after this date, have been discovered, according to the BBC.
Pastor Mackenzie also denied forcing his disciples to starve themselves in an interview with Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper a few weeks ago.
However, after obtaining a “revelation from God,” Pastor Mackenzie preached against education, calling it evil, according to Mr Katana of the New York Times.
Mr Katana, who is also aiding in a police probe against the pastor, stated that his teachings had become too “strange” for him to remain in the cult.
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Pastor Mackenzie also advised mothers to postpone seeking medical assistance during childbirth and to skip immunizations for their children.
Much of Pastor Mackenzie’s preaching is about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies about the Day of Judgment.
Posts regarding the end of the world, approaching disaster, and the perceived hazards of science may also be found on the church’s website.
And there are frequent warnings of an omnipotent evil entity infiltrating the world’s highest echelons of authority.
