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Kenya Releases Autopsy Of Christians Who Died While Fasting

Published

2 years ago

May 1, 2023

Kenyan government officials and pathologists wearing protective clothing

The first autopsies Monday on corpses found in mass graves linked to a Kenyan pastor suspected of inciting followers to fast to death confirm starvation as the cause of death, although some victims were asphyxiated, the authorities said.

Experts carrying out the first post-mortems on more than 100 bodies unearthed in a coastal forest examined nine children aged one to 10 as well as one woman.

“Most of them had features of starvation,” chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor said after the autopsies took place in a hospital morgue at the town of Malindi.

“We saw features of people who have not eaten — there was no food in the stomach, the layer of fat was very small,” he said.

“We have had a look at all their bodies and all their organs were intact. None was missing so far.”

But, Oduor added, “From what we are hearing, there was some indication that they were being smothered, that can be one of the causes of asphyxiation. It was in two children. “

In a case that erupted last month, horrifying a deeply religious nation, cult leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge is accused of urging followers to find God through starvation.

The provisional death toll stands at 109, which includes a small number of people who were found alive but died on their way to hospital.

“The process of exhumation was temporarily stopped because the experts advised us (that) when it is raining, that process cannot continue,” Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said earlier.

– ‘Other methods’ –

Investigators will also take DNA samples to help identification, though the full results may take months, Oduor said.

“Generally, all the bodies are decomposed and this makes it very difficult for us to calculate the time of death,” he said.

Kindiki had on Friday that preliminary reports suggested “some of the victims may not have died of starvation. There were other methods used, including hurting them.”

A former taxi driver, Nthenge created a Christian-based cult called the Good News International Church.

Investigators suspect he has links with a prominent televangelist, Ezekiel Odero, head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, who was arrested last Thursday.

Odero is suspected of crimes including murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalisation, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutor Peter Kiprop said last week there was “credible information” linking bodies found in Shakahola forest to the deaths of several “innocent and vulnerable followers” of Odero.

Odero and Nthenge share a “history of business investments” including a television station used to pass “radicalised messages” to followers, Kiprop said in court documents.

– Ruto pledge –

The two pastors are currently in detention and are to appear in court in different towns on Tuesday.

Newly elected President William Ruto, in remarks on April 24, said there was no difference between rogue cult leaders and “terrorists”.

“I have instructed the agencies responsible to … get to the root cause … of the activities of… people who want to use religion to advance weird, unacceptable ideology,” he said.

More than 4,000 churches are registered in Christian-majority Kenya.

But efforts to weed out crooks and charlatans through regulation have been thwarted by accusations that this would violate constitutional guarantees for freedom of religion.

“In the course of the week,” the interior minister said, “the president (will) be announcing members of a presidential task force to deal with generally how we govern religious activities in our country and how we make sure we don’t infringe on the sacred right of the freedom of worship, opinion and belief.

“But at the same time we don’t allow criminals to misuse that right to hurt, kill, torture and starve people to death.”

Related Topics:Kenya Kenya autopsy results

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Woman Wanted Over Mutilation Of Boyfriend’s Genitals In US

Published

4 hours ago

October 9, 2025

Editor

Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, United States, are searching for a 45-year-old woman, Jeanita Hopings, accused of breaking into her boyfriend’s home and attacking him with a sharp object, causing serious injuries to his genitals.

As reported by PEOPLE on Thursday, warrants issued for Hopings’ arrest show she faces charges of felonious assault and aggravated burglary in connection with the October 7 incident.

Investigators allege that Hopings “forcefully kicked open the front door” of her boyfriend’s home before entering “without permission,” according to one of the warrants.

Once inside, she allegedly attacked the victim with an “unknown instrument,” inflicting a deep wound.

“The victim’s testicle was clearly exposed as the result of the laceration,” the warrant stated.

The man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, police confirmed.

Hopings has not yet been arrested and has not entered a plea to the charges. Court records from Lucas County indicate that she has no prior felony history, though she has previously faced several traffic-related misdemeanour offences.

Police say Hopings remains at large as the investigation continues.

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US To Execute Man Convicted Of Rape, Murder Of Teen

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7 hours ago

October 9, 2025

Editor

A 53-year-old man convicted of the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl is to be executed by lethal injection in the US state of Indiana on Friday.

Roy Lee Ward was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne at her home in the town of Dale.

Payne was repeatedly stabbed and died of her injuries several hours after the attack.

Ward was arrested at the scene while still holding a knife.

The execution is to be carried out between midnight and sunrise on Friday morning at a state prison in Michigan City.

Ward will be the third person put to death in Indiana since the state resumed executions last year after a 15-year hiatus because of difficulties obtaining the lethal drugs used in them.

There have been 34 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2014, when 35 inmates were put to death.

Florida has carried out the most executions — 13 — followed by Texas with five and South Carolina and Alabama with four.

Twenty-eight of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and four by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

AFP

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Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal

Published

1 day ago

October 8, 2025

Editor

Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he may go to the Middle East at the end of this week as a peace deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is “very close.”

Trump said during an event at the White House that he would “go to Egypt most likely” but that he would also consider going to war-torn Gaza.

“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually. And we’ll see, but there is a very good chance. Negotiations are going along very well,” Trump told reporters at the start of the event.

“Our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas, and it seems to be going well. So we’ll let you know, if that’s the case, we’ll be leaving probably on Sunday, maybe on Saturday.”

Near the end of the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio unexpectedly entered the room and handed Trump a note.

The US president told reporters the note said that “we’re very close to a deal” and that his presence was needed. “I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East,” he added.

Hamas and Israeli officials are having indirect talks in Egypt on a 20-point peace proposal unveiled by Trump to end the two-year-old war.

– ‘Very close’ –

Trump said as he began the event that he had come off the phone with officials in the Middle East, where his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had just joined discussions in Egypt.

“‘Peace for the Middle East,’ that’s a beautiful phrase, and we hope it’s going to come true, but it’s very close, and they’re doing very well,” Trump added.

“We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they’re, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also. But it’s something I think that will happen.”

Asked if he would consider going to Gaza if a deal happens, Trump replied: “I would, yeah. I would. I might do that. I may do that. We haven’t decided exactly.”

Trump said he would insist on the release of hostages held by Hamas before traveling to the region.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said earlier that he had received “encouraging” signs and hailed the support of Trump.

Hamas too expressed “optimism” over the indirect discussions with its foe Israel.

Trump’s plan calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
AFP