Security officers carry a young man rescued from the forest in Shakahola, on the outskirts of the coastal town of Malindi, on April 23, 2023. In Kenya, 21 bodies were exhumed while investigating a cult whose followers were believed to have starved to death. , police sources said on April 22, 2023, warning the number could rise
The death toll of a Christian sect fasting in a Southern California forest has risen from 360 to 372. Kenya “See Jesus Christ”. The information was confirmed by local police on Wednesday 12th. According to the Regional Police Commissioner for the Kenya Coast, Rhoda Onyancha, the excavations, which resumed last Monday 10th after a break of several weeks, are still ongoing and the death toll could rise in the coming weeks. Therefore, the Kenyan authorities continue to open the mass graves and graves found in the Shakahola Forest in County Kilifi. Almost all of the bodies of the victims of the socalled “Shakahola Massacre” were exhumed in this 800acre forest, while few died in hospital due to the seriousness of their condition. On June 27, state pathologist Johansen Oduor said that of the 338 bodies examined so far, 117 were minors and 201 were adults, while 20 were in a state of decomposition too advanced to determine their age. The autopsies conducted so far revealed that while all the bodies showed signs of starvation, some of them, especially those of children, also showed signs of strangulation and asphyxiation. In this sense, initial police investigations indicate that believers were obliged to continue the fast even if they wanted to break it. So far, at least 37 suspects have been arrested in connection with the deaths that shocked the country. Kenya’s Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki this week accused the country’s security and judicial forces of neglect for failing to adequately respond to earlier complaints against the cult’s alleged leader, Pastor Paul Mackenzie. The pastor, who has been in police custody since April 14, runs the Good News International Church and has worked as a taxi driver in the past.
*With information from EFE.