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Nairobi: Thirty-nine bodies have been found so far on land owned by a pastor in coastal Kenya who was arrested for telling his followers of a Christian cult they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death.
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.
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.Credit: AP
The total death toll is 43, 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.
A tip-off 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 before they reached hospital. The followers said they were starving on the pastor’s instructions in order to meet Jesus.
Titus Katana, a former member of the church, helped police identify the graves.
The exhumed bodies of victims of a religious cult are laid out in the village of Shakahola, near the coastal city of Malindi.Credit: AP
“We have shown the graves to the police, and in addition, we have saved the life of a woman who only had a few hours left, otherwise she’d also be dead,” Katana told Citizen TV.
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 has been arrested twice before, in 2019 and in March 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.
Helen Mikali, the manager of a children’s home who was also helping investigators, said she had visited several nearby villages where parents and children had disappeared.
“Personally I have visited about 18 children’s graves,” Mikali told Citizen TV. She did not say how she knew the graves contained the remains of children.
Last month police arrested and later released Makenzi, who they identified as Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, for encouraging the parents of two boys to starve and suffocate their children to death.
During a court appearance in that case, Nthenge said he was unaware of the events that led to the deaths of the two boys, adding he was the target of hostile propaganda from some of his former colleagues, The Standard newspaper reported.
Local politicians have urged the court not to release him this time, decrying the spread of cults in the Malindi area.
Cults are common in Kenya, which has a largely religious society.
AP, Reuters
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