Kenya Red Cross said Tuesday it had set up tracing and counseling desks at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital for the Shakahola response.
At the trading desk, 213 people had been reported missing, among them 112 who are children below 18 years who are suspected to be followers of controversial Malindi Pastor Paul Mackenzie.
This is as 73 bodies were exhumed in Shakahola in what has been described as horrific mass graves.
Kenya Red Cross Society coast regional coordinator Hassan Musa said they are still receiving more relatives of family members who are looking for their loved ones.
He said the Malindi hospital mortuary is also overwhelmed with bodies which are currently 90 including the 73 that were brought from Shakahola and those people who died at the hospital.
“We have so far got 213 people who are missing, 112 are children below 18 years two people were found by their relatives,” he said.
Musa said they have also requested four feet containers from headquarters which will be installed at the morgue to help in preserving the bodies.
” Already the container is on its way coming by evening it will be in Malindi ready for installation,” he said.
Musa said plans are underway to increase more volunteers in Shakahola to help in the rescue mission and exhuming bodies.
Families and relatives of missing loved ones are flocking to the rescue center to trace their loved ones.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki is Tuesday expected in the area as the exhumation goes on.
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 was suspended on Monday due to bad weather and resumed 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.
The security teams arrested a man suspected to be a co-mastermind and the lead clergy attached to cult leader Paul Makenzie.
The suspected mastermind, 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 Makenzie, 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.
Mackenzie, is in police custody, as detectives probe the starvation to death of tens of people.
Police also suspect that some of the victims did not starve to death and may have been killed and then buried on the property.
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 Makenzie do not belong to any religion, they belong to jail and that is where they should be.”
Makenzie 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.
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”.
