Authorities have begun processes to reunite about 400 cult victims found in the Shakahola forest in southeastern Kenya with their families.
Hundreds of bodies have been retrieved from shallow graves on the 840-acre farm since April last year.
According to government report, the victims were asked by the cult leader and pastor, Paul Makenzie Nthenge, to starve to death “to meet Jesus.”
“There are 390 plus bodies yet to be identified positively going at this rate we are going to here for ten years trying to identify the 390 bodies,” said Roseline Odede, chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
“I think the government must intentionally commit resources towards this process so that we are able to give closure to families,” she added.
Meanwhile, the cult leader, Paul Makenzie Nthenge who runs the Good News International Church and 29 others are in court facing murder charges
Kenyan State broadcaster reported that one of the pits contained the bodies of three kids, a mum and a dad, suggesting the entire family starved themselves after being brainwashed that they could “meet Jesus” by foregoing food.
Nthenge was arrested in April 2023 after four emaciated bodies were found.
From his cell, Nthenge reportedly denied the charges against him and claims he shuttered his church operation in 2019, but he’s been refused bail.
As part of an ongoing investigation, pathologists plan to take DNA samples from the dead to confirm whether the individuals died of starvation.
Victor Kaudo of the Malindi Social Justice Centre told Citizen TV: “When we are in this forest and come to an area where we see a big and tall cross, we know that means more than five people are buried there”.
The entire sprawling forest, which stretches across 800 acres of the coastal city of Malindi, has been sealed off and is being treated as a crime scene, according to Kenya’s interior minister.
Kenyan daily The Standard reported that Nthenge bestowed the biblical names “Nazareth, Bethlehem and Judea” on three local villages and baptised his followers in ponds.