Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki is Tuesday, April 25 expected to visit the Shakahola forest scene where dozens of bodies have been exhumed after a mass burial in a cult.
This comes as the exhumation process continues with officials expecting to find more bodies in the expansive forest.
On Monday, 26 more bodies were found in shallow graves in the area.
This increased the number of deaths attributed to the cult to 73, police said.
The total number of those exhumed since Friday, April 21 is 65 while eight died while in the hospital.
Police also rescued nine people from death by starvation Monday, with five of them being in critical condition.
The exhumation exercise on the 800-acre land belonging to the cult leader Paul Mackenzie was suspended on Monday due to bad weather and will resume Tuesday, police said.
Mackenzie, who is in police custody, is being investigated for influencing his followers to starve to death in order to meet their maker.
Police also suspect that some of the victims did not starve to death and may have been killed and then buried on the property.
Inspector-General of Police Japhet Koome said a total of 29 people had been rescued and taken to the hospital.
Koome and Director of Criminal Investigations boss Mohammed Amin arrived at the village in the afternoon Monday.
“As a Service, we strongly condemn any form of a religious organization that promotes extremist beliefs and operates outside the confines of the law, putting the safety and wellbeing of Kenyans at risk and violating basic human rights; in this case, the right to life.”
“While Article 32 (1) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 provides for the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, and opinion, the law further requires that the same be done within the boundaries of the law and with respect for the rights and safety of others,” he said.
The security teams arrested a man suspected to be a co-mastermind and the lead clergy attached to cult leader Paul Makenzie.
The, who identified himself as “Pastor Zablon Wa Yesu”, was found while reading a Bible on a section of the expansive 800-acre land owned by Mackenzie, police said on Monday.
The suspected mastermind, however, was not fasting.
He told police he was waiting until June so that he would start fasting along with some other men from the Good News International Church.
Authorities also confirmed finding seven bodies in one grave on Monday, the highest from one site.
Questions have been raised on possible laxity and negligence by administrators and the local security apparatus.
Kindiki directed the Coast Regional Coordinator, together with the regional security team, to reinforce the team in Malindi ahead of his visit on Tuesday.
Kindiki said enough security officers have been deployed and the entire land was sealed off as a crime scene.
“The unfolding Shakahola forest massacre is the clearest abuse of the constitutionally enshrined human right to freedom of worship. Prima facie, large-scale crimes under Kenyan law, as well as international law, have been committed,” the CS said.
President William Ruto weighed in on the controversial church in Kilifi as shocking deaths by starvation of members of the suspected cult continue to be unearthed.
Ruto said Mackenzie, who is suspected to have brainwashed his congregation into starving to their death is a terrorist and belongs in jail.
“What we are seeing in Kilifi in Shakahola is keen to terrorism, there is no difference. Malkenzie pretends and postures as a pastor when he is a dangerous criminal,” Ruto said.
“People like Paul Mackenzie are using religion to do exactly the same thing.”
Ruto said he has instructed relevant agencies to investigate the matter fully to identify the cause of the matter.
“Any religious group that peaches against the tenets of the constitution, that teaches against seeking medical adoption or going to school should be prosecuted, institutions closed down,” he said.
“People like Mackenzie do not belong to any religion, they belong to jail and that is where they should be.”
Mackenzie was arrested on 15 April after discovering the bodies of four people suspected of having starved themselves to death.
This followed a tip-off from a follower at the church.
One of the graves contained the bodies of five members of the same family – three children and their parents.
He has denied wrongdoing but has been refused bail.
He insists that he shut down his church in 2019.
The followers say he told them to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus“.
