Kenya Cult Death Toll Rises To 133

By Samuel Ouma

The latest death toll in Kenya's cult investigation has risen to 133 after the investigators exhumed 21 more bodies on Tuesday, May 9, 2023.

At the same time, five more persons were rescued, bringing the total number of people rescued to 68.

Five hundred more people have been reported missing, and the mission to find their whereabouts is ongoing.

The deaths are attributed to pastor Paul Mackenzie, who encouraged his church members to starve to death to see Jesus. He is detained while the Kenyan government escalates its crackdown on terror-related activities.

Last month's discovery of mass graves in the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi startled Kenyans in what has been called the "Shakahola forest massacre".

The country's Interior Cabinet Secretary, Kithure Kindiki, revisited the forest on Tuesday to oversee the resumption of exhumations put on hold last week due to bad weather.

Addressing the press, Kindiki said Shakahola cult deaths seem like a well-organized crime, revealing that 20 graves are currently being opened.

"The damage is quite significant, 20 mass graves are currently being opened," said Kindiki.

Autopsies on the bodies revealed that some of the victims died as a result of starvation, while some were beaten, suffocated and strangled to death.

According to court documents filed on Monday, some of the corpses had their organs removed, with police accusing the suspects of forced harvesting of body parts.

"Post mortem reports have established missing organs in some of the bodies of victims who have been exhumed," chief inspector Martin Munene noted in an affidavit filed to a Nairobi court.

There have been concerns about how Mackenzie, who has a history of extremism and prior legal issues, was able to elude the law for all that long.