Starvation cult ‘massacre’ toll increases

– Kenyan investigators unearthed another 16 bodies yesterday in a forest where a cult was believed to be practising mass starvation, bringing the number of victims to 89 including children.

There are fears more corpses could be found in Shakahola forest where cult leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge had allegedly been telling his followers that starvation was the only path to God.

Children are among the latest victims of the “Shakahola Forest Massacre”, with search teams still undertaking the macabre task inland from Malindi on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast.

The grim discovery has shocked the nation and President William Ruto has pledged a crackdown on “unacceptable” religious movements.

Visiting the site yesterday, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki warned worse could still come.

“We don’t know how many more graves, how many more bodies, we are likely to discover,” he said, adding the crimes were serious enough to warrant terrorism charges against Nthenge.

He said 34 people had been found alive so far in the vast forest, where police were tipped off about the cult’s activities and a crime scene has been established.

As the fatalities mounted, authorities at the state-run Malindi Sub-County Hospital warned the morgue was running out of space to store the bodies.

“The hospital mortuary has a capacity of 40 bodies,” said the hospital’s administrator Said Ali, adding that officials had reached out to the Kenya Red Cross for refrigerated containers.

It is believed that some followers of the Good News International Church could still be hiding in the bush around Shakahola and at risk of death if not quickly found.

Hussein Khalid, executive director of the rights group Haki Africa that tipped off the police, urged the authorities to send more rescuers to scour the 325ha area of woodland for survivors.

“Each day that passes by there is very high possibility that more are dying,” he said, adding 50 to 60% of the victims were children.

As the investigation unfolds, questions have emerged about how the cult was able to operate undetected despite Nthenge attracting police attention six years ago.

The televangelist had been arrested in 2017 on charges of “radicalisation” after urging families not to send their children to school, saying education was not recognised by the Bible.

Nthenge was arrested again last month, according to local media, after two children starved to death in the custody of their parents.

He was released on bail of 100 000 Kenyan shillings (about R13 000) before surrendering to police following the Shakahola raid.

Nthenge is due to appear in court next Tuesday. –