NAIROBI, May 1 (Portal) – The bodies of several children exhumed in eastern Kenya showed signs of starvation and in some cases asphyxiation, a government pathologist said on Monday as investigators began the first autopsies on over 100 people associated with a doomsday cult.
On Monday, investigators said they performed 10 autopsies, including nine children between the ages of 18 months and 10 years and one adult woman, of the 101 bodies discovered last month in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest, Kilifi County.
Authorities say the dead are supporters of the Good News International Church, led by Pastor Paul Mackenzie, whom they accuse of instructing worshipers to starve themselves to death in order to get to heaven first before the end of the world.
Eight cult members who were found emaciated in the forest later died. So far 44 people have been rescued.
Mackenzie has been in police custody since April 14 along with 14 other suspected cult members.
“In general, most of them showed signs of starvation. We saw characteristics of people who had not eaten. There was no food in the stomach,” the government’s chief pathologist, Johansen Oduor, told reporters.
[1/3] Naomi Kahindi, who lost her sister and children, all followers of a Christian sect called Good News International Church, who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves in Shakahola, is mourning at the Malindi Subdistrict Hospital Mortuary in Malindi, Kilifi County, Kenya April 26, 2023. Portal/Monicah Mwangi
Two showed signs of asphyxiation, he added.
The deaths mark one of the worst cult-related tragedies in recent history and the death toll is expected to continue rising as the Kenyan Red Cross says more than 300 people have been reported missing.
Mackenzie has not made any public comment. Portal spoke to two lawyers working for Mackenzie, but both declined to comment on the allegations against him.
Most of the bodies recovered so far are children, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Friday.
Oduor said the government is collecting DNA samples from people who have reported missing relatives. He said the matching process would take at least a month.
On Sunday, President William Ruto said he would set up a judicial commission of inquiry this week to investigate what happened in Shakahola.
Reporting by George Obulutsa; Writing from Hereward Holland; Edited by Sofia Christensen, Angus MacSwan and Leslie Adler
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George Oblutsa