Kenya starvation cult death toll hits 90 as morgues fill up: “Nothing prepares you for shallow mass graves of children”
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The death toll from a suspected Kenyan starvation cult climbed to 90 on Tuesday, including many children, as police said investigators were pausing the search for bodies because the morgues were full.
The discovery of mass graves in Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi has shocked Kenyans, with cult leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge accused of driving his followers to death by preaching that starvation was the only path to God.
There are fears more corpses could be found as search teams unearthed 17 bodies on Tuesday, with investigators saying children made up the majority of victims of what has been dubbed the “Shakahola Forest Massacre.”
Kenya’s government has vowed to crack down on fringe religious outfits in the largely Christian country.
“We don’t know how many more graves, how many more bodies, we are likely to discover,” Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki told reporters, adding the crimes were serious enough to warrant terrorism charges against Mackenzie.
“Those who urged others to fast and die were eating and drinking and they were purporting that they were preparing them to meet their creator.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kenya-starvation-cult-death-toll-rises-child-graves-shakahola-forest-massacre/.
