Mother awaits DNA results on remains linked to Kenya’s starvation cult
Carolyne Odor told the BBC that she was desperately feared for the fate of her two young sons who had disappeared two months ago with their father – a follower of the teachings of a notorious chief of worship.
Ms. Odor says that in the midst of an underway investigation into more death -related deaths, she identified her husband’s body during a morgue in the coastal city of Malindi.
Its corpse was found in July in the village of Kwa Binzaro, inside the land of Malindi and near the isolated forest of Shakahola, where more than 400 bodies were found in 2023 in one of the worst cases of mass death linked to worship.
The smell of MS is now awaiting the results of DNA tests carried out on more than 30 recently unearthed bodies.
“I felt pain. I barely recognized it. Her body was seriously decomposed,” said Odor, 40, about her husband Samuel Owino Owoyo.
She believes that her sons, Daniel, 12 and Elijah, nine, traveled with their 45 -year -old father to Kwa Binzaro at the end of June.
The self -proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie is currently tried on the so -called “massacre of the Shakahola forest” – and pleaded not guilty of guilty manslaughter.
He would have told his disciples that they would arrive in paradise faster if they stopped eating – and there were concerns, he was in contact with his prison disciples.
Odor says her husband began listening to Mr. Mackenzie’s teachings four or five years ago.
“He changed and he didn’t want children to go to school,” she said. “When the children fell ill, he would say that God would heal them. He really believed these teachings.”
Carolyne Odor’s concerns increased when she realized that her husband had not gone to her native village but in the coastal area where the Shakahola forest is located [BBC]
His change of opinion on formal education and medical interventions caused friction between the couple, who had six children together at their home in Mudulusia in Busia county, in western Kenya, near Lake Victoria.
“The lessons did not make sense to me,” said Ms. Odor. “When a child is sick, yes, I believe that God can heal him, but I also know that when a child is sick, take them to the hospital.”
Two months ago on June 28, the situation worsened when her husband left for their two youngest sons.
“He told me that he was going to his native village [of birth]Said Ms. Odor. And I said to him, “Take a safe trip”. “”
But Ms. Odor started to be wary when she did not contact her again.
Later, she did not go to her parents’ village in the county of Homa Bay, which is also near Lake Victoria, about 200 km (125 miles) south of Mudulusia.
In retraced his steps, she discovered that he had taken a bus from their home in Busia county and that he had traveled with the boys over 900 km east to Kwa Binzaro in the county of Kilifi in Kenya.
She informed the police and urgently made a word through various networks to try to find them.
A few weeks ago, she received a call saying that someone who corresponded to the description of her husband was in the morgue of Malindi.
It was a devastating blow.
Ms. Odor went to the coastal area on August 19 to confirm her husband’s death for herself.
He was told that his body was found in the village of Kwa Binzaro on July 19 during a police descent organized due to suspicious disappearance reports.
Police said that he had been discovered in bushes near a house suspected of being linked to the worship of famine and seemed to have been deceased by strangulation.
It is alleged that some victims of the massacre were strangled if they took too long to starve.
Following an investigation by the office of the director of prosecution by Kenya, 11 people were arrested in the case, including three followers of Mr. Mackenzie.
A search for more bodies began on August 21. Until now, 32 bodies have been exhumed and more than 70 parts of the body have been dispersed in the forest.
For Ms. Odor, it was a horrible process to assist.
“You see exhumed bodies, and you don’t even know the state of your own children,” she said. “It’s very painful.”
Samuel Samuel Owino Owoyo is said that his wife has become fascinated by the ideas of Paul Mackenzie several years ago [BBC]
Dr. Raymond Omollo, a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior, told the BBC that the government intended to introduce more difficult laws to combat religious extremism and radicalization in the country.
“We are working on a bill, the religious bill, in order to at least have certain parameters for a religious organization-is he a constitution? Who are the leaders? What kind of qualifications have?” He said.
He thinks that this will help ensure that these groups are more responsible.
Exhumations near Kwa Binzaro have been temporarily suspended while homicide and medico-legal experts are preparing to examine the remains found so far.
For residents of the region, the most recent investigation has not only shocked them, but made life difficult because the forest is a vital resource for them.
“We depend on the forest for firewood and charcoal,” said George Konde, from Kwa Binzaro, to the BBC. “Now, because of what happened, it was not allowed to enter. They must comb the whole forest and put an end to these cults once and for all.”
Ms. Odor continues her agonizing expectation to find out where her two sons are.
“I was looking forward to one of my sons in 7th year and the other in the 4th year,” she said. “Whenever I see a child wearing a uniform, I feel pain because of their absence. I don’t know how they are going.”
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