Kenyan authorities began digging more than a dozen graves in the country’s east on Friday, alleging that they contain members of a Christian cult who starved to death in the belief that doing so would secure them a spot in heaven.
Murder detectives checked out sites in the Shakahola forest in Kilifi county on Thursday, according to footage carried on Citizen TV, not far from where police rescued 15 members of the Good News International Church last week.
Charles Kamau, a detective in the neighboring town of Malindi, reported that the police had began exhuming corpses on Friday, but he provided no other details.
The arrest of church leader Paul Mackenzie, as well as the finding of at least 31 shallow graves belonging to church members, was made possible by an anonymous tip.
Mackenzie’s legal attorney could not be reached for comment straight away.
According to reports, the 15 rescued believers were instructed to starve to death in order to obtain everlasting life. Four of them died before they could reach the hospital. Titus Katana, a former church member, assisted in locating the graves.
“We have shown the graves to the police,” Katana told Citizen TV, “and in addition, we have saved the life of a woman who only had a few hours to live, otherwise she would also be dead.”
According to human rights campaigner Matthew Shipeta of the NGO Haki Africa, there are at least fifteen shallow graves.
Helen Mikali, the manager of a children’s home who was also aiding investigators, revealed that she had visited multiple towns in the region where parents and children had gone missing.
“I’ve visited about 18 children’s graves,” Mikali told Citizen TV. She didn’t say how she discovered the graves contained the dead of children.
Mackenzie, whose real name is Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, was arrested and then released last month for allegedly instigating the parents of two boys to starve and suffocate their children to death.
According to the Standard newspaper, at a court appearance in that case, Nthenge claimed that he was unaware of the events that led to the deaths of the two boys and that he was the target of malicious propaganda from some of his former colleagues.
