Kenyan Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Tuesday that authorities had resumed their search for members of a doomsday cult in a forest where over 100 bodies, mostly children, had been exhumed.
Paul Mackenzie, the leader of the Good News International Church, has been arrested on suspicion of instructing his congregation to starve their children to death and themselves to heaven before the end of the world on April 15.
Kindiki said during a visit that search efforts in the Shakahola forest in southeastern Kenya had resumed after being halted for a few days due to bad weather. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and may still be in the forest.
“There are many more graves in this forest, so we conclude that this was a highly organized crime,” Kindiki told reporters.
He tweeted that autopsies had been completed on 112 people whose bodies had been discovered or exhumed from Shakahola. People “suspected to be holed up in the thickets and bushes” have been the focus of rescue efforts.
President William Ruto announced an investigation into the mass deaths on Friday, and a court ordered Mackenzie to remain in custody pending the results of those inquiries.
Mackenzie’s criminal charges do not require a plea at this time. Two of his attorneys have refused to comment on the allegations.
Authorities had charged prominent televangelist Ezekiel Odero with complicity in the killing of his own followers, but he was released on bail last week.
Authorities have made no public announcements about the discovery of any bodies, in contrast to Mackenzie’s case.
According to court documents reviewed, police have linked the sale of Mackenzie’s followers’ homes and “huge cash transactions” to Odero’s bank accounts, leading them to suspect that Odero assisted Mackenzie in money laundering.
