What drove Kenyan cult members to starve themselves?

Published: April 27, 2023, 1 a.m.

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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.\\n \\nThe 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.\\n \\nSo far 89 bodies have been exhumed \\u2013 but the Red Cross has said that 112 people have been reported missing.\\n \\nWhen police arrived they also found 29 sick and weak survivors - but many continued to refuse food.\\n \\nThe leader of the church - Pastor Paul Mackenzie - has been arrested. \\n \\nFor Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja hears about this case from the human rights worker who first alerted the police \\u2013 and also asks why people get lured into religious cults in the first place? \\n \\nGUESTS: Hussein Khalid from HAKI Africa and Dr Kennedy Ongaro of Daystar University in Nairobi.

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