Kenyan president sets up inquiry into religious cult deaths

The commission of inquiry was announced on Friday by presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed even as cult leader Paul Mackenzie remained in custody.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday appointed a commission of inquiry into the deaths of more than 100 people believed to have starved themselves to death, while a court ordered that the cult leader remain in prison.

The commission of inquiry, announced on Friday by presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed, will examine whether administrative or intelligence lapses contributed to the deaths.

Kenyan authorities have said the dead were members of the Good News International Church led by Paul Mackenzie, who they said predicted the world would end on April 15 and instructed his followers to kill themselves to be the first to go to heaven.

The death toll stands at 111 but could rise further, in one of the worst cult-related disasters in recent history.

Mohamed said Ruto had also appointed a task force to review regulations governing religious organisations.

Mackenzie has not commented publicly on the accusations against him nor has he been required to enter a plea to any criminal charge. His lawyer George Kariuki told the press on Tuesday that his client could face “possible terrorism charges”.

Mackenzie appeared in court in the port city of Mombasa on Friday, where prosecutors asked a judge to hold him for an additional 90 days as their investigation continued.

The judge said he would deliver a ruling next Wednesday on the prosecution’s request and ordered that Mackenzie remain in custody until then.

Mackenzie, who was wearing a black and pink jacket and holding his two-year-old daughter during the hearing, told journalists at the court that he and some of his supporters were being refused food in prison. Prosecutors denied this and his lawyer had told the press on Tuesday that his client was eating.

“He eats and drinks,” Kariuki said. “He is healthy. I have met him personally. There have been rumours that he has refused to eat, and that is not true.”

In March, Mackenzie was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of the murder of two children by starvation and suffocation but was then released on bail.

Relatives of his adherents say that after he was freed, he returned to the forest where they lived and brought forward his predicted world’s end date – which had previously fallen in August – to April 15.

This has led to criticism by some Kenyan lawmakers that security services missed opportunities to prevent the mass deaths.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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Interim Burkina Faso president hails Russia as ‘strategic ally’

 Ibrahim Traore speaks about conflict in the Sahel region but denies that Russian mercenaries are helping his government fight rebels.

Burkina Faso’s interim president, Ibrahim Traore, on Thursday said Russia has become a key strategic ally but denied that Russian mercenaries are supporting Burkinabe forces in their fight against armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

Ouagadougou’s relations with Moscow are in the spotlight as anti-French sentiment rises in parts of the region. In February, the West African country evicted French troops after ending an accord that allowed France to fight armed groups there since 2013.

During a rare televised interview on Thursday, Traore was asked about Burkina Faso’s international allies in the conflict that has killed thousands of people and displaced about 2.5 million in the broader Sahel region over the past decade.

“The departure of the French army does not mean that France is not an ally,” Traore replied. “But we have strategic allies too. We have new forms of cooperation. Russia, for example, is a strategic ally.”

He said Russia was a major supplier of military equipment and would remain so without giving further details.

“I am satisfied with the cooperation with Russia. It’s frank,” he said, sitting on an ornate chair in military fatigues and a beret.

Western countries are concerned about Russia’s increasing sway in the Sahel and nearby regions. France withdrew its forces from Mali last year after the military government there started working with the Russian military contractor Wagner Group to fight armed groups.

France had been there since 2013, but failure to root out the rebels led to Malians’ disenchantment with their former colonisers.

Traore was asked to comment on reports that Wagner forces are also on the ground in Burkina Faso.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo alleged in December that his neighbour had hired the mercenaries, and Burkina Faso summoned Ghana’s ambassador to protest.

“Our army fights alone,” Traore said. “Wagner’s presence was invented to harm Burkina, so countries would not cooperate with us.”

The instability in Burkina Faso triggered two coups last year by the military, which has promised to retake control of the country but has so far failed to stop attacks.

Unrest in the region began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 when rebels hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising. The violence has since spread into Burkina Faso and Niger, and experts have warned that it could destabilise coastal countries farther afield.

SOURCE: REUTERS

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South African opera singer excited to perform at Charles’s coronation

The South African is set to be the first African national to sing an opera solo at a British coronation ceremony.

South African soprano Pretty Yende first met King Charles when she was invited to sing at Windsor Castle by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra last year. On Saturday, she will perform solo at his coronation.

“I’m too excited to be nervous,” she said. “It’s an incredible time of my life as a young girl, as a South African, as an artist, only joy floods my heart.”

Months after singing at Windsor, a phone call interrupted rehearsals at the Vienna State Opera to ask the 38-year-old if she would perform at the coronation in London on May 6.

“This was my audition I guess,” said Yende, recalling the evening at Windsor during a backstage interview at the opera house.

“That was the first time I met the king,” she said. “He was very kind, very warm.”

Yende is the first African national to sing an opera solo at a British coronation. Nigerian-British Afrobeats superstar Tiwa Savage is also expected to perform at the event, alongside Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and other artists.

Savage’s performance has sparked controversy in Nigeria, with Lagos-based writer Innocent Chizaram saying that “the Crown wants to use an African woman artiste who isn’t their first or second pick to salvage their image somehow” and noting that famous British singers Adele, Ed Sheeran and others declined to perform.

In Yende’s South Africa, there have been calls for the UK to return the world’s largest diamond, known as the Star of Africa, which is set in Charles’s royal sceptre. The diamond was discovered in South Africa in 1905 and presented to the British monarchy two years later by the colonial government in the country, which was then under British rule.

“All proceeds of colonialism, slave trade and imperialism are illegitimate transactions,” Everisto Benyera, associate professor of African politics at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, told Al Jazeera.

Yende grew up singing gospel music in church in her hometown of Piet Retief in eastern South Africa.

She remembered musical evenings with her family while washing dishes after dinner. But it was during long walks to church with her asthmatic grandmother that Yende, aged five at the time, perfected her pitch.

“When we took breaks she would open the hymn book from our church and teach me these songs,” she said, recalling the fear of then being told to perform them for the congregation. “I was very shy … but I didn’t want to disappoint my grandmother.”

In 2001, aged 16, she discovered opera in a television commercial and begged a school professor to teach her.

That passion took her to Latvia and then to Italy, her base for several years. She has starred in theatres across the world and released a debut album in 2016.

At the coronation, Yende will perform “Sacred Fire”, a piece written by composer Sarah Class for the occasion.

“For me, it’s a soul’s business,” Yende said. “Whether you’re a king, a princess or just a girl from the tip of Africa singing for the coronation of the king.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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