Authorities in Kenya have exhumed the bodies of more than 400 people that are said to have died from starvation in connection with a doomsday cult.
Officials told the Associated Press (AP) that they believe all of the victims were followers of a doomsday cult in the coastal town of Malindi led by a local pastor named Paul Mackenzie, who ordered them to fast to death to meet Jesus.
Mackenzie has denied the allegations, who in June, told CNN that he has “never seen anybody starving” when asked about accusations that followers of his group had starved their children following his instructions.
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According to the BBC, Mackenzie told the Kenyan Nation newspaper, “Is there a house maybe or an enclosure or a fence somewhere that has been found [at the farm] where people might have been locked in?”
Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha told the paper that an additional 12 bodies were located on Monday, bringing the total number of those who have died to 403.
Pathologists said most of the bodies discovered, the vast majority were already in advanced states of decomposition, though, Onyancha said that more than 200 of the bodies had undergone DNA matching.
Onyancha said that an additional 95 followers had been rescued, and detectives are still working to locate more mass graves as some 613 people have been reported missing to Kenya Red Cross officers in Malindi, according to the AP.
In May, relatives of those involved with the cult began speaking out, Stephen Mwiti, whose wife and six children joined the cult and are possibly among those who died, told Reuters, “He [Mackenzie] told them to starve themselves ahead of the world’s end on April 15, saying he would be that last one and that he would lock the doors.”
Local hospital staff also confirmed Mwiti’s statements, telling Reuters that survivors described similar accounts. “He [Mackenzie] had an elaborate plan of killing children, youths, and then adults, telling them he would be the last one to starve himself to death,” one recalled.
While the search for the missing continues, the AP reported that Mackenzie and 36 other suspects are currently in police custody, but none have been charged yet.
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, said what transpired in Malindi was “akin to terrorism” and vowed to crack down on “those using religion to advance their heinous acts.”
It is believed that Mackenzie moved to the forested part of Malindi in 2019 after his church was closed over the pastor’s preaching, which is said to have included asking children not to go to school.
He was previously arrested and released on bond over the disappearance of children, according to the AP.
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