The Kenyan government on Tuesday resumed exhumation of bodies in the coastal village of Shakahola as investigations into how the victims died continue.
Official figures show that the remains of 109 people have so far been retrieved.
It is alleged that the victims starved to death on orders of their pastor, Paul Mackenzie. The preacher allegedly told them that they would “meet Jesus” if they hastened their deaths.
According to some survivors, children were directed to die first, then the unmarried people, the married were to follow thereafter, and finally Mackenzie and his family.
Kenya’s Interior minister Kithure Kindiki said in Malindi, Kilifi County on Tuesday that 65 frail followers were rescued from the Shakahola forest.
“Two of the survivors were evacuated on Tuesday morning,” he said.
At least 25 people, including Mackenzie and his wife, have been arrested in connection with the deaths.
The government said Mackenzie and his co-accused will face terrorism, murder and abduction charges.
Autopsy reports have indicated that most of the victims died of starvation, strangulation or suffocation.
“The investigation team is closing in on Level Two and Level Three perpetrators who [allegedly] aided Mackenzie to execute the heinous atrocity,” Kindiki said.
The government has declared the 50,000-acre ranch in Shakahola a security area with “limited access for all persons who are unauthorised”.
His remarks come after Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, was denied access into the forest on May 5.
Odinga said he had gone to the scene to assess the extent of the tragedy.
