Editor's Review

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi is under fire from netizens after he issued a statement on the Shakahola cult deaths in Kilifi County.

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi is under fire from netizens after he issued a statement on the Shakahola cult deaths in Kilifi County. 

In the statement on Monday, April 24, Kingi asked the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and to be more vigilant about what is happening across the country. 

“The unfolding horror that is the Shakahola cult deaths should and must be a wake-up call to the nation, more particularly the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and our community policing program. What happened in Shakahola is awful. It ought not to have happened but it happened all the same, worse still to very innocent people,” said Kingi.

The former Kilifi Governor at the same time questioned how the Shakahola cult went on for some time without the intelligence system detecting.

“How did such a heinous crime, organized and executed over a considerable period of time, escape the radar of our intelligence system? How did evil of such an astounding magnitude take place without being detected? How did this 'pastor' gather so many people, indoctrinated, brainwashed and starved them to death in the name of religion and then buried them in a forest without being detected?” he posed.

File image of Amason Kingi. 

His statement has however been criticized by Kenyans who said that the cult began while he was serving as the Kilifi County boss.

Below are some of the reactions.