Police arrest 55 suspected Ugandan cult members in Nakuru

Nakuru, Wednesday, May 3, 2023

K.N.A By Dennis Rasto/Anne Mwale

Detectives in Nakuru County are holding 55 Ugandan nationals suspected to be members of a religious cult.

Acting on a tip off, police officers from Central Police Station intercepted the 29 adults and 26 minors at the Nakuru main bus terminus where they were reportedly planning to board a vehicle to Nairobi enroute to Ethiopia.

Nakuru East Senior Deputy County Commissioner Mr. Were Simiyu said preliminary investigations had established that the group who are members of the Christ Disciples Church (CDC) did not have proper travel documents and were allegedly heading to Yangatom, Ethiopia for what they termed as an evangelisation mission.

In March this year Ugandan Police in East Kyoga mounted a search for over 100 members of CDC who have reportedly gone missing in Serere District. The sect members allegedly started disappearing in February 2023.

Ugandan police records indicate that missing sect members of Christ Disciples Church are based in Obululun Village, Bugondo Sub County while others are from the areas of Kidetok Town Council and Olwa Village in Pingire Town Council- all in Serere District. 

According to police, each missing member was asked to contribute 2 million Ugandan shillings, equivalent to 73,000 Kenya shillings for processing papers and to provide a 40kg bag of maize flour before they vanished. 

Followers consequently sold off their property such as cattle, land and other household items to raise the money. Those who met the requirements were allegedly moved by the church leadership to Ethiopia,” police noted.

Mr Simiyu stated that the Sub-County Security Committee which also included officials from the Immigration department had interrogated them noting that only one could communicate in English.

“The Kenyan government will not allow them to proceed to their destination unless they provide proper and official travel documentation,’’ DCC Simiyu said.

Isaac Adile, the only one who spoke English in the group said that they had left Eastern Uganda on Sunday and got stranded at the Nakuru bus terminus after they ran out of fare.

“We are on a mission to spread the gospel to Ethiopians for a week and then return to Uganda. We gained entry into Kenya through the Busia border point and there are more members of our church who have preceded us to Ethiopia for the same reason,” Mr Adile told journalists.

Mr Simiyu indicated that the security committee had resolved to facilitate their immediate return to Uganda.

This comes barely a month after the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the arrival of hundreds of Ugandan nationals who are reportedly fleeing their country over doomsday fears.

Meles Alem, the Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s spokesperson said that the Ugandans were camping in Yangatom which borders Kenya, the same area which those intercepted in Nakuru told the police that they were destined to visit. 

Additionally, Ugandan police are particularly hunting for the CDC sect leaders Reverend James Enyaku and Augustine Orago to help in the investigations.

“Preliminary findings indicate that the leadership of the church allegedly convinced their members that God had a plan for them to go and spread the gospel in Ethiopia, an idea many seem to have accepted and subsequently vanished,” police noted.

“Police are working to locate the leadership of the church and to ascertain the exact whereabouts of the missing members,” the report added.

This comes amid investigations into the activities of Shakahola cult leader Paul Mackenzie and controversial pastor Ezekiel Odero.

The state has linked the two, describing them as individuals who share a history of business investment, particularly the TV station previously used to pass radicalized messages to their followers.

Some of these followers, the court heard, are believed to be among the hundreds of bodies so far exhumed at the Shakahola land linked to Mackenzie.

Mr Mackenzie is being investigated over the deaths of more than 100 people, whose bodies were found in mass graves in Shakahola, Kilifi County. It is said he convinced them to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.

Mr Odero is being investigated for murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalization, genocide, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud, money laundering and being an accessory to crimes.

Courtesy K.N.A