The first autopsies carried out on Monday (April 1) on 10 of the 109 victims found in a forest where a sect met in southeast Kenya found the deaths to have been caused by starvation and asphyxiation, announced forensic officer.
The coroners carried out the autopsy of nine bodies of children between 1 and 10 years old and a woman in the morgue of the hospital in Malindi (southeast), the director of the national service for forensic medicine, Johansen Oduor told the press.
“Most had traits of hunger. We saw characteristics of people who hadn’t eaten, had nothing in their stomachs, the fat layer was very thin,” he explained.
However, two children showed signs of death by asphyxiation. “As far as we know, there is evidence of it [as crianças] were smothered. This could be one of the causes of suffocation. went to[o caso] of two children,” he said, specifying that “no organ was missing” from the bodies.
Full results and identification of bodies from DNA samples could take “months,” Oduor said.
At least 109 people, mostly children, died in Shakahola Forest, where members of a sect called the International Church of the Good News used to gather, according to preliminary records.
Investigators suspect that many followers starved to death after following the slogans of the cult’s selfproclaimed pastor, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, who urged his followers to fast to death “to know Jesus.”
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