A suspect linked to a Kenyan starvation cult has died.
Joseph Juma Buyuka, who was in custody at the Malindi prison in Kilifi County, is reported to have succumbed during treatment in hospital.
“We suspect he died as a result of complications from hunger strike. We are waiting for postmortem to reveal the exact cause of his death,” State Senior Prosecutor Jami Yamina told a court in the Kenyan coast.
Two other suspects, Evans Sirya and Frederick Karimi, have been admitted to hospital after developing starvation-related complications, Yamina said.
The two, alongside Buyuka, were being remanded as authorities conclude investigations into the deaths of more than 330 people, who allegedly belonged to a cult led by preacher Paul Mackenzie.
Massacre allegations
More than 35 people, including Mackenzie and his spouse, are in custody as the government probes massacre allegations.
The prosecution asked the court to postpone the arraignment of Sirya and Karimi until they are discharged from hospital.
Mackenzie allegedly convinced his followers that fatal fasting would automatically qualify them to “meet Jesus in the afterlife."
The deaths were supposedly to follow a particular sequence: children first, then women, the unmarried people, the married and eventually Mackenzie and his family.
Hundreds of bodies have since been exhumed from shallow graves in Shakahola forest, an expansive area in Kenya’s southern town of Malindi.
