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Kenya cult deaths hits 90 as authorities expand operation

Published:Tuesday | April 25, 2023 | 3:26 PM
Police officers stand near a cordon at the scene where cops are exhuming bodies of victims of a Christian cult that has led to the death of dozens of followers, at a forest in Shakahola area, outskirts of Malindi town, Kenyan Coast Tuesday, April 25, 2023. (AP Photo)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The death toll at a ranch in coastal Kenya that is owned by a pastor who is accused of leading a religious cult and ordering his followers to starve themselves reached 90 on Tuesday, as the country's interior minister announced an expanded operation at the site.

The new figure came after police exhumed 17 more bodies.

The total number of those rescued while starving at the ranch now stands at 34.

The Kenya Red Cross Society's latest figure on the number of missing is 213.

Pastor Paul Makenzi, who heads the Good News International Church, is accused of luring his followers to the ranch near the town of Malindi.

He allegedly told them to fast to death in order to meet Jesus before burying them in shallow graves spread across his land.

He was arrested after police raided the property earlier this month, and he remains in police custody.

Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said that the security team will “upscale search and rescue missions to save as many lives as possible.”

“The entire 800-acre (320-hectare) parcel of land that is part of the Shakahola ranch is hereby declared a disturbed area and an operation zone,” Kindiki said while visiting the area.

The minister said there would be a turning point on how the country handles threats caused by religious extremism and was looking into another suspected cult in the same Kilifi county.

“We have cast the net wider to another religious organisation here in Kilifi. We have opened a formal inquiry on this religious group and we are getting crucial leads that perhaps what was being done by Makenzi is the tip of the iceberg,” Kindiki said.

The teams digging at the site have been finding decomposed bodies buried in mass and single graves marked with a cross.

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