A Kenyan man who was on hunger strike in police detention for 10 days has died, the prosecution said on Wednesday, June 21. He was suspected of having a hand in the deaths of hundreds of members of a starving cult in the said country.
Suspects Go on Hunger Strike
More than 300 members of the Kenyan cult, named Good News International Church and led by self-proclaimed leader Paul Mackenzie, are believed to have starved to death after being instructed to do so as the only way to reach heaven.
Joseph Buyuka, one of the 30 suspects in jail in connection to the cult deaths, has died while being detained alongside Mackenzie.
In court documents, according to CNN, it was said that Buyuka and the other four suspects played significant roles in the crimes resulting in the deaths and illegal disposal of bodies in the Shakahola forest. The forest refers to the location where the victims were found.
Most of the bodies have been removed from the southeast Kenyan forest by authorities since April.
According to senior prosecution attorney Jami Yamina, Buyuka passed away on Monday, June 19, in a hospital in Malindi, about 116 kilometers (72 miles) from the port city of Mombasa, where he had been brought from a neighboring jail.
Yamina told a court in Mombasa that he believed Buyuka's death was caused by complications from his hunger strike and starvation but that they would wait for the results of an autopsy.
On the same day as their admission, the hospital also took in two more suspects. Both Evans Sirya and Fredrick Karimi were in severe condition due to what was believed to be related to their hunger strike, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Buyuka, along with the other 15 accused, showed up to court too weak to even stand up properly. At the time, the investigating officer told the judge that the defendants were on hunger strike.
In Kenya, defendants wait to be arraigned in court while being kept in police station cells. The prosecution has sought the court for permission to transfer the 16 suspects from the police station to a government jail, where they will be force-fed. The petition was approved.
An unidentified court official told Al Jazeera that when Buyuka and the other suspects were in court last week, they assured the Shanzu Senior Principal Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda that they would start eating and cooperate with the police.
On Wednesday, the court requested that the prosecution produce a medical report for all 30 defendants currently in detention.
Kenya's Starvation Cult
The accusation against self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie is that he instructed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death in order to make it to heaven before the end of the world.
He turned himself into authorities back in April but was only recently refused bail. After authorities began exhumations, the other suspects were apprehended.
Some of the rescued members of Mackenzie's group were reportedly rejecting meals in May, prompting alarm from Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki. He said that one of them had passed away.
