Twelve more remains were discovered on Monday, bringing the total number of fatalities in the probe into a Kenyan cult that practiced starvation to “meet Jesus Christ” to more than 400, a top official said.
“Total death Toll – 403,” Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha told AFP in a message, following the latest round of exhumations in the Shakahola forest, where cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie allegedly urged followers to starve to death.
“Exhumation continues tomorrow,” Onyancha added, as investigators search for more graves in the forest, where the first victims – some dead, others alive but weakened and emaciated – were discovered on April 13.
Government autopsies indicate that malnutrition appears to have been the primary cause of death, despite the fact that some victims, including children, may have also been beaten, strangled, or suffocated.
Since the middle of April, Mackenzie, a former taxi driver who is now a preacher, has been in police detention.
His imprisonment was prolonged by one month on July 3 by a court in the port city of Mombasa pending investigations.
He is accused of participating in acts of terrorism or genocide, according to state prosecutors, although he has not yet been forced to make a plea.
There have been concerns about how Mackenzie, a father of seven and a self-described pastor, was able to elude law authorities despite a history of radicalism and prior legal issues.