Summary
A story about a cult that was reported on Feb 6, 2024, by the news channel CNN by a writer Bethlehem Feleke. The article was titled, "Kenyan cult leader charged with murder of 191 children." Just from the title we can assume cults aren't created for a good cause and are the threat behind these cult's isn't a very good reason to join a cult. Many people probably don't understand that the reason people join cults, but it is due to many reasons such as deception, as someone might have no one to rely in their life they probably wanted to have a family or people who understand them, the need for love, etc. But in this case this story of a cult originally begins with Paul Mackenzie, the leader of the Good News International Chruch in Kenya, he and his 29 associates have been charged and accused with the leading a doomsday cult and murdering 191 children of Tuesday morning by the Malindi High Court. Authorities exhumed over 400 bodies from the sprawling forest after months of search efforts as Mackenzie whose trail has been set to March 7 has remained in custody since last April as investigators spend months combing the forest for evidence. The reason for that is very simple the court have threatened to release Mackenzie last month if state prosecutor didn't bring charges against him. This eventually led the prosecutors to face a very lengthy process to identify victims through DNA due to severe decomposition of majority of bodies. These bodies were discovered in Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya, where Mackenzie allegedly operated a death cult. Many recovering bodies in the autopsy have showed to die from starvation while others had signs of blunt trauma and strangulation. As reported in the news Mackenzie faces several other charges including terrorism, manslaughter and child cruelty. The followers of the cult believed that the world was about to end, and they were instructed by Mackenzie to starve themselves and their children to death so they could ascend to heaven before the apocalypse. In other words, these people became victims of a destructive and deadly organization. When doing more research, I had discovered that the survivors described how they were held against their will in the forest, where women were repeatedly raped by guards and followers were initially given minimal food, but eventually they were denied any food or water and some managed to escape, but many were not as fortunate. But had authorities acted sooner and shut down the cult the hundreds of lives could have been spared in Kenya. This lesson on cults is very important to understand that we must be aware of the potential harm that cults and their leaders can inflict upon their followers. In Kenya it may not be well known but the loss of innocent lives is a reminder that they need the education they can get and awareness and intervention to prevent such disasters from ever occurring in the future. The steps I could take to avoid being enlisted in this cult would naturally be stay informed and educate yourself about cult practices, beliefs, and history. To trust my instincts and if I feel somethings wrong or manipulative trust your gut. I would do my best to reach out to friends and family I can trust and limit contact with the group if I believe it is a cult I'm involved with and seek professional help at some point. I would make sure to contact law enforcement if I'm in immediate danger or witness legal activates or I could join support groups as for my need for emotional support.
