Nairobi (BLAZETRENDS)
According to police statements, collected by local media, at dawn on Thursday another five bodies were found in graves and they managed to save two people.
The regional police commissioner of the Kenyan coast, Rhoda Onyancha, specified that 72 members of the sect have been rescued alive to date in the Shakahola forest, in the coastal county of Kilifi, where the events occurred.
Almost 600 families have denounced the disappearance of loved ones, although it is not clear that all the cases are related to this sect.
“Until now, DNA samples have been taken from the families. There are still 93 (the DNA samples obtained) and the number of detainees is also only 25”, added Onyancha.
The number of people reunited with their families remains at fourteen.
forced deaths
Almost all the dead of the so-called “Shakahola massacre” have been exhumed from graves and mass graves found in that forest, with the exception of a few who died in hospital due to the seriousness of their condition.
The autopsies of more than a hundred bodies showed that, although all showed signs of starvation, the corpses of at least three minors and one adult also had signs of strangulation and suffocation.
In addition, according to the first investigations by the Police, the faithful were forced to continue fasting even if they wanted to stop.
This Wednesday, the Shanzu court, in the coastal city of Mombasa, ordered the extension for thirty days of the detention of the leader of the sect who allegedly persuaded the victims to fast, pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, along with his wife and 16 other suspects. .
terrorism charges
On May 2, Nthenge and the other detainees were released by the court in the tourist coastal city of Malindi, after the Prosecutor’s Office stated its intention to file terrorism charges against them, something for which that court declared itself. incompetent.
However, the pastor and his henchmen were arrested minutes later and transferred to the Shanzu court, some 120 kilometers away, where the police unsuccessfully requested authorization to keep them detained for another ninety days.
Last Friday, the President of Kenya, William Ruto, appointed a commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Jessie Lesiit to clarify the facts and determine the administrative or security negligence that could have occurred.
Nthenge, in police custody since April 14, leads the Good News International Church.
An ecstasy driver, the pastor was already arrested last March after being accused of the death of two children in similar circumstances, but he was released on bail.
