Photo Credit: AP
No fewer than 39 bodies have been dug up by the Police from the graves in Malindi, a coastal town in the southeastern part of Kenya.
Police and local residents load the exhumed bodies of victims of a religious cult into the back of a truck in the village of Shakahola, near the coastal city of Malindi, in southern Kenya. Dozens of bodies have been discovered so far in shallow graves in a forest near land owned by a pastor Paul Makenzi in coastal Kenya who was arrested for telling his followers to fast to death.
The victims were some members of the Good News International Church who starved to death in botched bids to meet Jesus Christ in Heaven as instructed them by the church leader.
The Daily Crucible had reported earlier on April 14 that four people were discovered dead and almost a dozen others hospitalised in Kenya’s coastal Kilifi county, after being rescued while waiting the imminent end of the world.
The online news medium reported further that the Kenyan Police found the group of worshippers in a forest where they had been living for several days after being told by a local preacher to fast while “waiting to meet Jesus.”
The authorities at the time said they rescued 11 people – six of them were emaciated and in critical condition while the police said they would resume a search for more members of the group following reports that others were still in the forest and as a fresh grave was also found in the forest necessitating further investigation.
As of Sunday, however, 39 bodies have been found so far on land owned by the Kenyan pastor who had since been arrested for telling his followers to fast to death, according to The Hindu.
Malindi sub-county police chief John Kemboi said that more shallow graves have yet to be dug up on the land belonging to pastor Paul Makenzi, who was arrested on April 14 over links to cultism.
The total death toll is 43, according to because a further four people died after they and others were discovered starving at the Good News International Church last week.
Police have asked a court to allow them to hold Makenzi longer as investigations into the deaths of his followers continue.
The Hindu reported that a tipoff from members of the public led police to raid the pastor’s property in Malindi, where they found 15 emaciated people, including the four who later died. The followers said they were starving on the pastor’s instructions in order to meet Jesus.
Police had been told there were dozens of shallow graves spread across Makenzi’s farm and digging started on Friday.
Makenzi has been on hunger strike for the past four days while in police custody.
The pastor was arrested twice before, in 2019 and in March of this year, in relation to the deaths of children. Each time, he was released on bond, and both cases are still proceeding through the court, according to the paper.
Also, Kenya Broadcasting Station (KBC) said that 58 graves have so far been identified, adding that dead children are among those that have been exhumed.
Meanwhile, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, the founder of the church, also known as the “cult leader”, though in police custody, has denied any wrongdoing.
Nthenge was arrested on April 15 after four bodies suspected of having starved themselves to death were discovered by the police.
The preacher was said to have instructed his congregation to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus”.
“In one grave, investigators found the bodies of three children with their father on one side and their mother on the other side. Another grave contained the bodies of a woman and a girl, both facing each other. All appeared to have died in recent weeks,” a police source told AFP news agency.
“Police have identified at least 58 suspected graves on the grounds of the Good News International Church, raising fears that the death toll will rise significantly. One Kenyan media outlet reported that more than 100 people may have been buried in the graves.
“We have not even scratched the surface which gives a clear indication that we are likely to get more bodies by the end of this exercise.”
