Headline
Kenya Releases Autopsy Of Christians Who Died While Fasting
Published
12 months agoon
By
EditorThe 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.”
READ ALSO: Kenya Starts Autopsies Of ‘Starvation Cult’ Deaths
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.
READ ALSO: Another Kenyan Pastor Charged For ‘Mass Killing’ Of Church Members
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.
READ ALSO: Cult Leader Arrested Over Death Of 4 Members Who Starved To ‘Meet Jesus’
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.”
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Headline
UPDATED: Defence Chief, Nine Others Die In Kenya Military Helicopter Crash
Published
18 hours agoon
April 18, 2024By
EditorA Kenyan military helicopter carrying top brass including the defence chief crashed on Thursday, police said.
President William Ruto convened an urgent meeting of the National Security Council, his office announced after news of the crash emerged.
Defence forces chief General Francis Omondi Ogolla was among those on board the helicopter that went down in Elgeyo Marakwet county, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi, a senior police officer told AFP.
“The helicopter burst into flames after crashing and it had more than 10 senior commanders on board including General Ogolla,” the officer said.
READ ALSO: Heavy Floods in UAE, Afghanistan, Pakistan, 135 People Killed
“They were in the area on a security mission because there are KDF (Kenya Defence Forces) soldiers deployed in the region,” he said.
Earlier, there was no report of official comment on casualties.
“President William Ruto has convened an urgent meeting of the National Security Council at State House Nairobi this evening following a Kenya Defence Forces’ helicopter crash this afternoon in Elgeyo-Marakwet County,” State House spokesman Hussein Mohamed said in a statement.
Ogolla, 61, was appointed Chief of the Defence Forces by Ruto in April last year after a stint as deputy.
READ ALSO: Court Restrains EFCC From Arresting, Detaining Yahaya Bello
Ruto told journalists last May that he appointed Ogolla despite him being among those who tried to overturn his narrow election win against opposition leader Raila Odinga in 2022.
“When I looked at his CV, he was the best person to be (a) general,” Ruto said, adding his decision went against the wishes of many people.
A trained fighter pilot, Ogolla joined the KDF in April 1984, rising through the ranks to command the Kenyan Air Force in 2018, a post he held for three years.
However, in a latest report, President Ruto said Ogolla and nine other senior military officers died in a helicopter crash on Thursday.
He added that only two survived the air accident.
“Today at 2:20 pm, our nation suffered a tragic air accident… I am deeply saddened to announce the passing on of General Francis Omondi Ogolla,” Ruto said.
AFP
Headline
Heavy Floods in UAE, Afghanistan, Pakistan, 135 People Killed
Published
21 hours agoon
April 18, 2024By
EditorAround 70 people have been killed by heavy rains lashing Afghanistan over the past five days, the government’s disaster management department said on Wednesday.
Neighbouring Pakistan has also been hammered by spring downpours, with 65 people killed in storm-related incidents as rain falls at nearly twice the historical average rate, officials told AFP.
Dubai’s flagship Emirates airline cancelled all check-ins on Wednesday as staff and passengers struggled to arrive and leave, with access roads flooded and some metro services suspended.
Afghanistan was parched by an unusually dry winter that desiccated the earth, exacerbating flash-flooding caused by spring downpours in most provinces.
READ ALSO: Germany Arrests Two Alleged Russian Spies
Disaster management spokesman Janan Sayeq said “approximately 70 people lost their lives” as a result of rains between Saturday and Wednesday.
Fifty-six others have been injured, he added while more than 2,600 houses have been damaged or destroyed and 95,000 acres of farmland wiped away.
Giving a smaller death toll last week, Sayeq said most fatalities at that point had been caused by roof collapses resulting from the deluges.
The United Nations last year warned that “Afghanistan is experiencing major swings in extreme weather conditions”.
After four decades of war, the country ranks among the nations least prepared to face extreme weather events, which scientists say are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change.
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At least 25 people were killed in a landslide after massive snowfall in eastern Afghanistan in February, while around 60 were killed in a three-week spate of precipitation ending in March.
In Pakistan, heavy downpours between Friday and Monday unleashed flash floods and caused houses to collapse, while lightning killed at least 28 people.
The largest death toll was in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 32 people have died, including 15 children, and more than 1,300 homes have been damaged.
“All the casualties resulted from the collapse of walls and roofs,” the spokesman for the province’s disaster management authority, Anwar Khan, told AFP on Wednesday.
Dubai’s giant highways were clogged by flooding and airport passengers were urged to stay away on Wednesday as the glitzy financial centre reeled from record rains.
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Huge tailbacks snaked along six-lane expressways after up to 254 millimetres of rain – about two years’ worth – fell on the desert United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.
At least one person was killed after a 70-year-old man was swept away in his car in Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the country’s seven emirates, police said.
Passengers were warned not to come to Dubai Airport, the world’s busiest by international traffic, “unless absolutely necessary,” an official said.
“Flights continue to be delayed and diverted… We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions,” a Dubai Airports spokesperson said.
Climatologist Friederike Otto, a specialist in assessing the role of climate change on extreme weather events, told AFP it was “highly likely” that global warming had worsened the storms.
Two German-Russian men were arrested in Bavaria on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning blasts and arson attacks to undermine Berlin’s military support for Ukraine, German prosecutors said Thursday.
The pair, identified only as Dieter S. and Alexander J., were arrested in the city of Bayreuth in southeastern Germany on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The main accused, Dieter S., is alleged to have scouted potential targets for attacks, “including facilities of the US armed forces” stationed in Germany.
Police officers also searched both men’s residences and workplaces on Wednesday.
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They are suspected of “having been active for a foreign intelligence service” in what prosecutors described as a “particularly serious case” of espionage.
According to prosecutors, Dieter S. had been exchanging information with a person linked to Russian intelligence services since October 2023, discussing possible sabotage acts.
“The actions were intended, in particular, to undermine the military support provided from Germany to Ukraine against the Russian aggression,” prosecutors said.
The accused allegedly expressed readiness to “commit explosive and arson attacks mainly on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany”.
To this end, Dieter S. collected information about potential targets, “including facilities of the US armed forces”.
READ ALSO: Putin Wins Russian Presidential Election With 87.97% Of The Vote
Fellow accused Alexander J. began assisting him in March 2024 at the latest, they added.
Dieter S. scouted some of the potential targets by taking photos and videos of military transport and equipment. He then allegedly shared the information with his contact person.
Dieter S. also faces a separate charge of belonging to a foreign terrorist organisation, as prosecutors strongly suspect he was a fighter of an armed unit of the so-called “People’s Republic of Donetsk” in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2016.
Germany has been shaken by several cases of alleged spying for Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, amid suggestions that officials in Berlin are too sympathetic to Moscow.
A former German intelligence officer is currently on trial in Berlin, accused of handing information to Moscow that showed Germany had access to details of Russian mercenary operations in Ukraine. He denies the charges.
In November 2022, a German man was handed a suspended sentence for passing information to Russian intelligence services while working as a reserve officer for the German army.
AFP
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