Forensic experts in Kenya have started autopsies of more than one hundred corpses found in mass graves linked to a pastor accused of instructing his followers to starve to death.
"Officially the process of post-mortem of the bodies starts immediately," Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki told reporters outside a hospital morgue in the coastal town of Malindi on Monday.
"We are here to witness a very critical stage," he said. "That process is expected to take roughly a week, all going well."
Investigators will also take DNA samples to help identification, though the full results may take months, the chief government pathologist, Johansen Oduor, said.
Mass graves in the nearby Shakahola forest have revealed scores of dead, most of them children, the AFP news agency reports.
But the death toll of 109, which includes a small number of people who were found alive but died on their way to hospital, is still provisional.
"The process of exhumation was temporarily stopped because the experts advised us (that) when it is raining, that process cannot continue," Kindiki said.
Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, a former taxi driver who created a Christian-based cult called the Good News International Church, is accused of telling followers that starvation offered a path to God.
But Kindiki said Friday that preliminary reports suggested "that some of the victims may not have died of starvation. There were other methods used, including hurting them."
The discovery of the bodies deeply shocked Kenya -- an impact amplified last week by the announcement that another prominent televangelist would face charges over the "mass killing" of his supporters.
Ezekiel Odero, the head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, who was arrested on Thursday, is suspected of crimes including murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalisation, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering.
Prosecutor Peter Kiprop said last week that there was "credible information" linking the bodies found in the forest to the deaths of several "innocent and vulnerable followers" of Odero.
Odero and Nthenge share a "history of business investments" including a television station that was used to pass "radicalised messages" to followers, Kiprop said in court documents.
The two pastors who have not yet publicly commented are currently in detention. They are expected to appear in courts in different towns on Tuesday.
