[ICYMI] Sister tells of 'heartbreak' over Kenya cult member accused of starving kids
Roseline Asena never imagined her brother would be accused of working with a Kenyan cult leader to starve scores of followers, including his own wife and childrenWhen Roseline Asena's younger brother quit drinking after joining a Kenyan church run by now notorious cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, she hailed the self-proclaimed pastor for"saving" him from the clutches of alcoholism.
The 41-year-old is among 16 suspects accused of operating an armed -- and apparently well-fed --"enforcer gang" tasked with ensuring that no one broke their fast or left their forest hideout alive, investigators said, with more than 100 bodies already exhumed from mass graves in the bush. In lush Vihiga county in western Kenya, where the Asena clan lived, family members launched a frantic effort to convince the former mechanic to abandon the church.
Two months later, when police uncovered mass graves outside the coastal town of Malindi, their worst fears were confirmed.Asena's sister-in-law, who gave birth in the wilderness to their youngest child, a baby boy named Syla, was rescued by emergency workers and is receiving counselling. Some of the rescued cult members advised her to focus her search on the eldest child, 15-year-old Sheila, who used to sneak out and risk beatings to drink puddle water in a bid to survive.
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