The death toll associated with an investigation into a Kenyan cult that practiced starvation has risen to 201. On Saturday, search teams discovered an additional 22 bodies in a coastal forest according to a government official.
Rhoda Onyancha, the Coast Regional Commissioner, revealed the latest numbers and disclosed that 26 individuals, including Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and a group responsible for enforcing compliance with the fasting and preventing anyone from leaving the forest hideout alive, have been arrested in connection with the deaths.
Authorities suspect that the majority of the bodies discovered in a forest near the coastal town of Malindi, close to the Indian Ocean, are those of Mackenzie's followers. Mackenzie, a former taxi driver turned preacher, is accused of urging his followers to starve to death in order to "meet Jesus."
Onyancha said investigators would halt exhumations for two days to restructure their efforts with the process to resume on May 16, 2023.
Mackenzie has not yet been required to enter a plea but a court on May 10 ordered him to be detained for three more weeks pending further investigations over what has been dubbed the "Shakahola Forest Massacre".
Many still missing
The 50-year-old founder of the Good News International Church turned himself in on April 14 following the police entering the Shakahola forest on a tip-off.
While starvation appears to be the primary cause of death, chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor has reported that some of the victims, including children, were subjected to strangulation, physical assault, or suffocation.
According to court documents filed on Monday, police allege that the suspects were engaged in forced harvesting of body parts.
Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki has urged caution, telling reporters on Tuesday that "it is a theory we are investigating".
Onyancha said that over 600 people are reported missing, including from villages around the forest.
Calls for regulation
There are concerns regarding how Mackenzie, a father of seven, managed to avoid detection by law enforcement despite having a history of extremism and previous legal cases.
The shocking series of events has left Kenyans in disbelief and has led President William Ruto to establish a commission of inquiry into the deaths, as well as a task force to review the regulations governing religious organizations.
In a recent court hearing, another pastor who was accused of having connections to Mackenzie and the bodies discovered in the forest was granted bail.
Ezekiel Odero, a popular and affluent televangelist, is under investigation for multiple charges, including murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalization, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud, and money laundering.
Prosecutors claim to possess credible evidence linking the bodies unearthed in Shakahola to the deaths of various "innocent and vulnerable followers" associated with Odero's New Life Prayer Centre and Church.
Efforts to regulate religion in the majority-Christian country have been fiercely opposed in the past as attempts to undermine constitutional guarantees for the division of church and state.
