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NAIROBI – Pathologists started autopsies on Monday on more than 100 bodies linked to a Kenyan religious cult whose leader allegedly instructed them to starve themselves to death in order to be the first to go to heaven, officials said.

One hundred and nine followers of the Good News International Church, based in the Shakahola Forest in east Kenya, are known to have died.

Authorities have recovered 101 bodies from shallow graves since April 21, while eight cult members were found alive but died later. So far, 44 people have been rescued.

The deaths amount to one of the worst cult-related tragedies in recent history and the toll is expected to rise further, with the Kenyan Red Cross saying more than 300 people have been reported missing.

Cult leader Paul Mackenzie has been in police custody since April 14, held alongside 14 other cult members. Kenyan media have reported that he is refusing food and water.

Mackenzie has made no public comment. Reuters spoke to two lawyers acting for Mackenzie but both declined to comment on the accusations against him.

Children account for most of the bodies recovered so far, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Friday.

Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor will lead the postmortem examinations.

“We are going to be doing the autopsies in teams,” he told a news conference.

Kindiki said the autopsies will look at all possibilities, including whether or not some bodies had missing organs.

Oduor said the government was collecting DNA samples from those who had reported missing relatives and would do the matching in a process that would take at least a month.

On Sunday, President William Ruto said he would appoint a judicial commission of inquiry this week to probe what happened in Shakahola. – Reuters

A study of more than 2,200 adults who attended U.S. high schools in the early 1960s found that those who attended higher quality schools had better cognitive function 60 years later.

 TWO youths have been sentenced to four years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing musical instruments at Makeni National Christian Centre Church. The convicts Jazmin Nyambe, a student and Botha Mwila, a general worker, both aged 26 of Makeni, were charged with breaking into a building and committing a felony. On January 16, 2023, the […]

THE Zambia Athletics (ZA) says the poor performance of Zambian Athletes at the ongoing Confederation of African Athletics Under-18 and Under-20 championship is due to lack of adequate preparations.

ZA president Elias Mpondela said his Association had a challenge to prepare the athletes for the home games taking place in Ndola because most of the athletes were busy with school.

Mpondela also noted that luck of investment in athletics in the past has also been the reason to why Zambian athletes have struggled with only two medals after day two of the games.

Mpondela said countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and Kunya who have dominated the youth games in Ndola have invested massively in sport which is deemed as an economic driver.

“Countries that are doing well are countries that see sports as an economic driver. They already identified that the sport of athletics is an industry, an economic driver and they have been investing in it so you don’t get results when you don’t spend. We are now being helped and you know athletics is different from other sports. It’s a scientific sport where reading of play does not occur in one day or in two months,” Mpondela said.

“As an association I think we are challenged that we must do better. Government had that view that’s we must camp the athletes for two months but it was challenging because most of the athletes were in school and we started training them from their bases so that also created a little bit of a challenge,” he said.

“I think we are increasingly coming up because every popular sport starts on a smaller trajectory and to be given to host this tournament… There were countries calling requesting to host. What we are learning from this is that this things championship is good and we must do better in older for us to do better,” he said.

“So far it is the interest that we are created in these young people. We have been used to running instead exposing many to start competitive competitions so the start of the past two days, yesterday we did well and today’s we so athlete going to the semifinals and we have medals in 400 and 100 meters and we can see that things are showing and we are challenged as an association that we need to step up our game for us to continue getting the countries support. It is now our responsibility and not governments responsibility,” Mpondela said.

Mpondela who is the chairman of the Local Organising Committee admitted that information flow has been poor at the games in Ndola due to some technical challenges.

“For us we have admitted that information flow has been poor and we have learnt something. Tomorrow we should see something deferent. Same with electronic time system it is a very complicated system but I hope that things will be better,” Mpondela said.

On the Ethiopian team that had issues with accommodation Mpondela said that team Ethiopia had challenges with accommodation because the number of athletes who came for the tournament in Ndola was more than the number of athletes who were registered for the games. 

Mpondela said the situation was resolved before the games started and everything is going smoothly.

He said the influx of people to the Copperbelt for Kitwe derby contributed to the challenge of accommodation for the over 700 athletes from 53 countries.

Sprinter Leon Reid, who won a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland, has announced his retirement at the age of 28.

Reid was barred from competing at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after he was found guilty of allowing his flat to be used to produce crack cocaine.

He was handed a suspended sentence and ordered to do 220 hours of unpaid work.

He said his career was a “rollercoaster ride” with “exhilarating highs and gut-wrenching lows”.

“It’s with a heavy heart I bid adieu to the world of athletics and retire from the sport that has given me so much.

“(From) competing for Great Britain and England at a junior level and being a part of their history books to changing allegiances to the gold, white and green of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“Becoming a national record holder is something I never dreamed of achieving,” added Reid.

Reid barred from Commonwealth Games after security risk assessment

A 200m specialist, Reid set his personal best of 20.27 seconds in 2018 – the year he switched international eligibility from Great Britain to Ireland.

After winning his Commonwealth Games medal in April 2018 in Australia, Reid reached the 200m final at the European Championships later that year in his first international appearance for Ireland.

Reid won Northern Ireland’s first athletics medal in 28 years when he claimed an impressive bronze in the 200m at the Gold Coast.

After missing out on selection for the 2019 World Championships, Reid did secure qualification for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 only for the Games to be delayed for a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But four months before the rescheduled Tokyo Games, the sprinter was one of 18 men charged with drugs and firearms offences, all of which he denied.

– BBC

ZAMBIA Under-17 National Team coach Ian Bakala has described as painful the narrow 1-0 defeat to Nigeria in the opening fixture at the ongoing Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria.

Bakala however noted that he was impressed with the team’s performance despite having started the youth AFCON on a shaky note.

Nigerian young star Favour Daniel stunned Zambia in the 89th minute to give Nigeria the win in a Group B fixture.

Speaking during the post-match interviews, Bakala said his lads accounted for themselves well despite having lost focus in the dying minutes of the game.

Bakala said the Junior Chipolopolo would work on the mistakes made in the first game Nigeria as they prepare for the South Africa clash tomorrow.

“It was a very tough and tactical game. The boys played well despite the loss and I feel they accounted for themselves well. It is a painful defeat in that it is an opener but we concede defeat. We really wanted to start on a good note but things couldn’t go as planned and that is how football is,” Bakala said.

“Anything is possible in football and if you look at how that goal came, our goalkeeper couldn’t do anything because the angle was tight. We need to work on a few mistakes we made before we face South Africa. It will be important for us to bounce back strong against our rivals in South Africa on Wednesday.”

Bakala said the boys were not clinical enough to get a win in the first game.

“We missed a number of chances in front of goal of which I feel we could have gotten an equaliser but as you know, football is a game of chances. The pitch was okay despite my other players struggling because it was the first playing on such turf. We have lost but we put aside this defeat and focus on the next assignment. We shall have to prove ourselves against South Africa,” said Bakala.

Meanwhile, Nigeria coach Nduka Antony described Zambia as a tough opponent that gave his side a tough time on the field of play.

“Zambia is a strong opponent that plays some good football. They gave us a good game and we were just luck not to concede. We created a number of chances in front of goal but the Zambia defence was solid. Yeah, it’s normal to miss a penalty in football and we can’t blame the boy because we managed to pick up maximum points,” Antony said.

He said African football had greatly improved and implored CAF to continue in the same trajectory.

“African football has developed a lot and the game against Zambia showed how much we have improved as a continent. The future of our game as Africa is bright and we implore and commend CAF to continue in the same trajectory,” said Antony.

After round one of group matches, Morocco tops Group B on three points tied with Nigeria but enjoy a superior goal difference.

Zambia are third on the group without a point same as rivals South Africa who they are scheduled to meet tomorrow in a match set to kick off at 21:00 Hrs.

Australia announced a sweeping crackdown on vaping Tuesday, accusing tobacco companies of hooking the next “generation of nicotine addicts” by deliberately targeting teenagers.

Inhibiting a tiny RNA whose levels significantly increase with age, along with problems like weaker bones and sagging muscles, may be a way to keep our bodies more youthful and healthy, scientists say.

In recent years, experts have debated whether most birthing individuals would benefit from labor induction once they reach a certain stage of pregnancy. But a new statewide study in Michigan suggests that inducing labor at the 39th week of pregnancy for people having their first births with a single baby that is in a head down position, or low risk, doesn’t necessarily reduce the risk of caesarian births. In fact, for some birthing individuals, it may even have the opposite effect if hospitals don’t take a thoughtful approach to induction policies.

The Biden administration will end most of the last remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements next week when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends, the White House said Monday.