NAIROBI, Kenya May 11 – The death toll from the shocking massacre in Shakahola has shot up to 145 Wednesday, even as the exhumation exercise continued.
This follows the recovery of 12 more bodies Tuesday.
Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha said 11 of them were exhumed while one was found in the expansive forest.
The recoveries came even as the High Court ordered three more weeks of detention for doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie who is accused of urging people to starve to death so as to “meet Jesus.”
The controversial pastor faces terrorism charges over what has been dubbed the “Shakahola Forest Massacre” after the grisly discovery last month of mass graves near the Indian Ocean town of Malindi.
A court in the port city of Mombasa ordered Mackenzie, his wife and 16 other suspects held for 30 days, dating from his first court appearance when he was arraigned on May 2.
Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda said that releasing the suspects would jeopardise their safety as well as the ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors had been seeking their detention for another 90 days.
Police believe most of the bodies found near Malindi were followers of Mackenzie, a taxi driver-turned-preacher who is accused of inciting them to starve to death “to meet Jesus.”
While starvation appears to be the main cause of death, some of the victims — including children — were strangled, beaten or suffocated, according to chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor.
Court documents filed on Monday said some of the corpses had their organs removed, with police alleging the suspects were engaged in forced harvesting of body parts.
But Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki urged caution.
“It is a theory we are investigating. The reports that came from the morgue are still being finalised and I do not want to pre-empt the matter,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Coast Regional Commissioner Onyancha has said that as many as 500 people have been reported missing, including from villages around the forest.
Mackenzie, who founded the Good News International Church in 2003, turned himself in on April 14 after police acting on a tip-off first entered Shakahola forest.
The case has stunned Christian-majority Kenya and led President William Ruto to set up a commission of inquiry into the deaths and a task force to review regulations governing religious bodies.
Another pastor accused of links to Mackenzie and to the bodies found in the forest, was released on bail at a court hearing last Thursday.
Ezekiel Odero, a high-profile and wealthy televangelist, is being investigated on a raft of charges including murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalisation, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering.
