By Brian Okoth
Ten more bodies were exhumed on Friday in Kenya’s coastal county of Kilifi as investigation continues into how hundreds of people were allegedly brainwashed by local preacher, Paul Mackenzie.
The death toll from the starvation cult has now risen to 336, the Kenyan government said.
The victims, according to Kenyan authorities, were directed by Mackenzie, who has since been arrested, to starve themselves to death “ahead of Jesus Christ’s return”.
Mackenzie allegedly convinced them that the fatal fasting would automatically qualify them to “meet Jesus in the afterlife”.
The hundreds of bodies were found buried in shallow graves in Shakahola forest, an expansive area in Kenya’s southern town of Malindi.
Exhumation suspended
The government has now suspended the third phase of exhumation to allow for postmortem to be conducted on 94 more bodies retrieved during the two-week exercise, Coast regional commissioner, Rhoda Onyancha, said on Friday.
The number of people rescued from Shakahola hunger trap stands at 95, with no more survivors found in the third phase of the search operation.
More than 600 followers of Mackenzie are said to be missing, according to government records.
Interior minister Kithure Kindiki, who spoke in Lamu County, some 130 kilometres northeast of Malindi, apologised to Kenyans over the Shakahola deaths, saying there was “laxity in both the previous and current government regimes”.
“This problem started many years ago. If our security agencies, religious leaders and the community had been vigilant, the Shakahola issue wouldn’t have reached this level,” said Kindiki.
The main suspect, Mackenzie, has been arrested alongside 35 others in connection with the deaths.
The prosecution says it will charge the suspects with mass murder, aiding suicide and cruelty towards children, among other offences.
Starvation, strangulation
Survivors, who spoke to the local media, said Mackenzie had instructed them to fast and die sequentially – from children, women, unmarried people, the married and then eventually him and his family members.
Postmortem conducted on the remains of victims exhumed from Shakahola indicated that most of them died of starvation, while others were strangled or suffocated.
The shocking incident of religious brainwashing has prompted Kenya to initiate the process of regulating worship institutions in the country.
Consequently, several churches have either been closed, their licences revoked or their leaders arrested in the nationwide crackdown.
