Detectives Friday, on June 9 exhumed 10 more bodies from mass graves in Shakahola Forest, Kilifi County, on land linked to cult leader Paul Mackenzie.
This raised the death toll to 274 people who perished from activities of the deadly cult.
Mackenzie is being investigated for crimes including aiding suicide, after allegedly convincing members of his Good News International Church to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.
The cult leader and tens of suspects have been arrested amid investigations and a court case to establish what happened in Shakahola.
Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha announced that the exhumation team will take a break over the weekend until Monday when the exercise will resume.
So far, she said there are no arrests that have been made in the ongoing search and rescue team.
Onyancha said 35 people were arrested since the operation began over two months ago while 95 people were rescued from the forest.
“No more arrests have been recorded as the total number of arrested persons since the exercise began over two months ago remains 35 while 95 people have been rescued,” she said.
Onyancha expressed fears that the exercise was waning due to the reduced number of exhumations and no more arrests.
Currently, the Kenya Defense Forces were on the ground opening up access roads within the 840-acre land so as to make the forest accessible.
The area has been cordoned off and declared a disturbed.
The government has sent a 30-day cancellation notice to the New Life Church of Pastor Ezekiel Odero and the Good News International ministries of Mackenzie.
The two churches have been under investigation for the Shakahola cult in which more than 270 people starved themselves so they could go to heaven.
Others, post-mortems revealed, were strangled and suffocated.
They were all buried in mass graves.
The third phase of the exhumation exercise started last Tuesday with Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki presiding over the process, which he described as a legal, medical, and human rights exercise that must be undertaken methodically and carefully to protect the dignity and privacy of families of the deceased persons.
Kindiki said the investigation team is closing in on level two and level three perpetrators who aided the cult leader Mackenzie to execute the heinous atrocity.
The entire Chakama ranch remains a security area and scene of the crime with limited access for all persons who are unauthorized.
Dozens more bodies are believed to be buried in shallow graves therein.
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“.
