Death toll in Kenyan starvation cult rises to 73, police say

Kenyan police have now recovered 73 bodies, mostly from mass graves in a forest in eastern Kenya, thought to be followers of a Christian cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves, authorities said.

The death toll, which has repeatedly risen as exhumations have been carried out, could rise further. The Kenyan Red Cross said 112 people have been reported missing to a tracing and counselling desk it has set up at a local hospital.

Followers of the self-proclaimed Good News International Church had been living in several secluded settlements in a 324-hectare (800-acre) area within the Shakahola Forest.

The death toll stands at 73, with 26 new bodies exhumed on Monday, Malindi sub-county police chief John Kemboi told the Associated Press news agency.

Kemboi said investigators had received reinforcements and were able to cover more ground.

The cult’s leader, Paul Mackenzie, was arrested on April 14 following a tip-off that suggested the existence of shallow graves containing the bodies of at least 31 of his followers. National Police chief Japhet Koome said 14 other cult members were in custody.

Mackenzie was arraigned on April 15 at Malindi Law Courts, where the judge gave police 14 days to conduct investigations while he was kept in detention. Kenyan media have reported that he is refusing food and water.

There has been no comment from any representative for Mackenzie so far.

“What we are seeing … is akin to terrorism,” Kenya’s President William Ruto said on Monday.

Ruto said he had instructed law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate the matter as a criminal case not linked to any religion.

Ruto, elected in 2022, was hyped as the country’s first evangelical Christian president and has not been shy about his faith, openly praying and weeping in churches before his election.

He has nominated several pastors into parliament and government agencies like the anticorruption commission.

Mackenzie had been arrested twice before — in 2019 and in March of this year — in relation to the deaths of children. Each time, he was released on bond, and both cases are still proceeding through the court.

Local politicians have urged the court not to release him this time, decrying the spread of cults in the Malindi area.

Cults are common in Kenya, which has a largely religious society.