NAIROBI
\nThe death toll among followers of a Kenyan cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves has risen to 89, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Tuesday, calling for the group\u2019s leader to spend the rest of his life in prison.
\nThe toll has steadily risen in recent days as authorities have carried out exhumations of mass graves found in an 800-acre area of the Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya where the self-proclaimed Good News International Church was based.
\nMost of the dead were recovered from shallow graves, while a small number were found alive and emaciated but later died.
\n\u201cOver and above the figure that was given yesterday at 73, we have been able to discover until this hour another 16 bodies, bringing the total to 89,\u201d Kindiki told reporters at the scene.
\nNews videos showed mud huts with palm thatched roofs, scattered among clusters of thorn trees and scrub bushes.
\nFootage aired on privately-owned Citizen Television showed one of those rescued, an emaciated woman, shouting at the rescuers, asking them to kill her instead.
\nExhumation sites were cordoned off and teams of men, some wearing white protective overalls and masks, could be seen carrying away corpses wrapped in blue and white body bags.
\nKindiki said three more people had been rescued alive, bringing the total number of survivors found so far to 34.
\n\u201cWe pray that God will help them to go through the trauma, to help them recover and tell the story of how one time a fellow Kenyan, a fellow human, decided to hurt so many people, heartlessly, hiding under the Holy Scriptures,\u201d he said.
\nThe death toll could rise further. The Kenyan Red Cross said more than 200 people had been reported as missing to a tracing and counselling desk it has set up at a local hospital.
\nThe cult\u2019s leader, Paul Mackenzie, was arrested on April 14 following a tip-off and another 14 cult members are in custody, according to police. Kenyan media have reported that Mackenzie is refusing food and water.
\n\u201cWe do not expect that Mr Mackenzie will get out of jail for the rest of his life,\u201d said Kindiki, adding that anyone who assisted him by digging graves or disposing of bodies should also face the harshest penalties under the law.
\nReporters were not able to reach any lawyer or representative for Mackenzie.
\nKenya\u2019s Office of the Director Of Public Prosecutions said preliminary investigations showed that the suspects might have committed crimes including murder, radicalisation and threatening public safety.
\n\u201cThe government admits that this should not have happened,\u201d said Kindiki, describing events in the Shakahola forest as a turning point in the threat posed by religious extremism.
\n\u201cBut the government which I represent here wants to assure the nation of Kenya that nothing like this again will happen (again). It won\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAIROBI The death toll among followers of a Kenyan cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves has risen to 89, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Tuesday, calling for the group\u2019s leader to spend the rest of his life in prison. The toll has steadily risen in recent days as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n