Carolyne Odour has told the BBC she desperately fears for fate of her two young sons who went missing two months ago with their father \u2013 a follower of the teachings of a notorious starvation cult leader.<\/p>\n
Ms Odour says that amid an ongoing investigation into more deaths linked to the cult she has identified her husband\u2019s body at a mortuary in the coastal town of Malindi.<\/p>\n
His corpse was found in July in the village of Kwa Binzaro, inland from Malindi and near the remote Shakahola Forest, where more than 400 bodies were found in 2023 in one of the worst ever cases of cult-related mass deaths.<\/p>\n
Ms Odour is now awaiting the results of DNA tests being carried out on more than 30 recently unearthed bodies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt pain. I barely recognised him. His body was badly decomposing,\u201d Ms Odour, 40,said about her husband Samuel Owino Owoyo.<\/p>\n
She believes her sons, 12-year-old Daniel and nine-year-old Elijah, travelled with their 45-year-old father to Kwa Binzaro at the end of June.<\/p>\n
Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie is currently on trial over the so-called \u201cShakahola Forest Massacre\u201d \u2013 and has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.<\/p>\n
He is alleged to have told his followers they would get to heaven more quickly if they stopped eating \u2013 and there have been concerns he has been in touch with his followers from jail.<\/p>\n
Ms Odour says her husband started listening to the teachings of Mr Mackenzie four or five years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe changed and he didn\u2019t want the kids to go to school,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen the kids would fall ill he\u2019d say that God would heal them. He really believed those teachings.\u201d<\/p>\n
His change in 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, western Kenya, near Lake Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe teachings didn\u2019t make sense to me,\u201d Ms Odour said. \u201cWhen a child is sick, yes I believe God can heal them, but I also know that when a child is sick you take them to hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two months ago on 28 June, the situation took a turn for the worse when her husband went off with their two youngest sons.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me he was going to his home village [of birth],\u201d Ms Odour said. \u201cThe last phone call we had he told me, \u2018We have gone, God be with you.\u2019 And I told him, \u2018Have a safe trip.’\u201d<\/p>\n
But Ms Odour started to get suspicious when he did not contact her again.<\/p>\n
She later found he had not gone to his parents\u2019 village in Homa Bay county, which is also near Lake Victoria, around 200km (125 miles) south of Mudulusia.<\/p>\n
Retracing his steps, she discovered that he had taken a bus from their home in Busia county and travelled with the boys more than 900km east to Kwa Binzaro in Kenya\u2019s Kilifi county.<\/p>\n
She informed the police and urgently put out word through various networks in an attempt to find them.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago she got a call saying someone who matched her husband\u2019s description was in the Malindi mortuary.<\/p>\n
It was a devastating blow.<\/p>\n
Ms Odour travelled to coastal area on 19 August to confirm her husband\u2019s death for herself.<\/p>\n
She was told his body had been found in Kwa Binzaro village on 19 July during a police raid organised because of reports of suspicious disappearances.<\/p>\n
Police said he had been discovered in bushes near a house suspected to be linked to the starvation cult and appeared to have died by strangulation.<\/p>\n
It is alleged that some victims of the massacre were strangled if they took too long to starve to death.<\/p>\n
Following an investigation by Kenya\u2019s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, 11 people were arrested in connection with the case, including three who were followers of Mr Mackenzie.<\/p>\n
A search for more bodies began on 21 August. So far, 32 bodies have been exhumed and more than 70 body parts found scattered in the forest.<\/p>\n
For Ms Odour, it has been a horrifying process to witness.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see bodies being exhumed, and you don\u2019t even know the condition of your own children,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Raymond Omollo, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Interior, told the BBC that the government intended to introduce tougher laws to tackle religious extremism and radicalisation in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working on a bill, the religious bill, to be able to at least have certain parameters for a religious organisation \u2013 does it have a constitution? Who are the leaders? What kind of qualifications do they have?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He believes this will help ensure such groups are more responsible.<\/p>\n
The exhumations near Kwa Binzaro have been temporarily suspended as homicide and forensic experts prepare to examine the remains found so far.<\/p>\n
For residents in the area, the most recent investigation has not only shocked them but made life difficult as the forest is a vital resource for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe depend on the forest for firewood and charcoal,\u201d George Konde, from Kwa Binzaro, told the BBC. \u201cNow because of what happened there were not allowed to go in. They need to comb the whole forest and put a stop to these cults once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Odour continues her agonising wait to learn the whereabouts of her two sons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was looking forward to one of my sons going to grade 7 and the other grade 4,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery time I see a child wearing uniform I feel pain because of their absence. I don\u2019t know how they are doing.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carolyne Odour has told the BBC she desperately fears for fate of her two young sons who went missing two months ago with their father \u2013 a follower of the teachings of a notorious starvation cult leader. Ms Odour says that amid an ongoing investigation into more deaths linked to the cult she has identified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}