Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki is expected to return to Kilifi County Monday to oversee the start of post-mortem examinations on the bodies exhumed from Shakahola forest.
The bodies, now recorded at 110 and still counting, are believed to belong to victims of a cult led by pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, the founder of the Good News International Church, who allegedly lured his faithful into starving themselves to death ‘to find God’.
The autopsy examinations will be conducted by a team of experts led by Government Chief Pathologist Dr. Johansen Oduor at the Malindi Sub-county mortuary.
Chakama Ranch where Shakahola Forest is located has since been cordoned off in the wake of the exhuming operation and a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed there after Kindiki declared it a disturbed area.
Police have also since arrested 14 members of the cult.
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver-turned-pastor, was charged in March after two children died of starvation while in their parents’ care and is still in police custody.
The discovery of the bodies has since sparked reactions from members of the public, religious leaders, and political leaders with President William Ruto announcing he will form a judicial inquiry to conduct an investigation into the Shakahola massacre.
Ruto said the commission will be expected to go through the case with a fine tooth comb and hold accountable everyone found culpable.
Religious leaders have called for scrutiny on auditing the kind of doctrines being taught in different churches across the nation, in a bid to weed out similar culprits like Mackenzie.
Dozens more bodies are believed to be buried in shallow graves therein.
Some 36 people have been rescued from starvation.
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.
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“.
