The death toll, which has repeatedly risen as exhumations have been carried out, could rise further. The Kenyan Red Cross said 112 people have been reported missing to a tracing and counselling desk it has set up at a local hospital.
The death toll, which has been rising steadily over the past two days as exhumations have been carried out, could rise further as the Kenyan Red Cross has said 112 people have been reported missing to a tracing desk it operates.
The cult was called the Good News International Church and its leader, Paul Mackenzie, was arrested following a tip-off that suggested the existence of shallow graves containing the bodies of at least 31 of his followers.
Police are acting on a tip-off suggesting that there are at least 31 bodies buried Bodies exhumed in Kenya starvation cult probe Police near the coastal town of Malindi started exhuming bodies on Friday from the Shakahola forest.
Earlier this month, police rescued 15 members of the group – worshippers at the church – who they said had been told to starve themselves to death. Four of them died before they reached hospital, police said.
Local media, citing police sources, reported that Mackenzie has refused to eat or drink while in police custody.
Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said the entire 800 acre forest had been sealed off and declared a scene of crime.
Since last week, police in Kenya have exhumed at least 89 bodies of people believed to have starved to death, from shallow graves in the country’s coastal region.
At the heart of the “massacre” is Pastor Paul Mackenzie, a controversial preacher at Good News International Church who indoctrinated his followers, asking them to abandon “earthly life” and meet at his 325-hectare (800-acre) farm in a village called Shakahola in Kilifi county for a fast “to meet Jesus”.
Mackenzie, a televangelist, founded his church in the coastal town of Malindi in 2003. Since then, he has constantly been at loggerheads with authorities after allegations that he was asking children to quit formal education.
In 2019, he closed the church and moved to Shakahola with a few of his members.
Mackenzie, who has often posited that he has prophetic powers and has seen apparitions of Jesus, said he got a revelation to do so.
He instructed his followers to quit their jobs, drop out of formal schools, stop feeding on “worldly food”, and not seek medical treatment in hospitals when sick. They met on Saturdays under a tree from 9am to 5pm for “life lessons”.
Police say he told them that the fast would count only if they gathered together, and offered them his farm as a fasting venue. They were not to mingle with anyone from the “outside” world if they wanted to go to heaven and were to destroy all documents given by the government, including national IDs and birth certificates, he allegedly said.
The government-authorised rescue began on April 13 after two children were reported to have starved and suffocated to death by their parents on Mackenzie’s advice on March 16 and 17.
On March 23, Mackenzie was arraigned in court and was released on 10,000 Kenyan shillings ($74) cash bail. He had been arrested before in 2019, also relating to the deaths of children, but was released on bond. Both cases are still in court.
Investigations by the police led them to Shakahola where 16 emaciated people were found, four of whom died before reaching the hospital.
At least 73 bodies have been exhumed since the search began; 27 people were rescued and admitted to the hospital for severe malnutrition; 39 known members of the cult are still missing though there could be more people as residents said about 300 people lived in the Shakahola farm.
The search is still ongoing, not just for bodies but also for survivors of the cult, some of whom are still refusing to eat. The followers say they were told to starve to avoid apocalyptic damnation.
There have been unverified reports that some of the cult members who were captured trying to escape the fast were killed and buried – one of the bodies recovered from the graves was of a healthy-looking person, whose body was not emaciated.
