Toll rises from 103 to 110 in Kenya cult starvation deaths

Relatives of the followers of a Christian cult named as Good News International Church, who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death in Shakahola, mourn as they walk in the rain outside the Malindi sub district hospital mortuary in Malindi, Kilifi county, Kenya April 27, 2023. Credit: Reuters Photo

Kenyan officials say the number of deaths linked to a cult on the country's Indian Ocean coast has risen from 103 to 110.

Heavy rains stalled the exhumation process for the third day and government pathologists began autopsies.

According to the Kenyan Interior Ministry, five people have been found alive over the last two days by searches and aerial surveillance of the 50,000-acre Chakama ranch.

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The autopsies began a day after President William Ruto announced that his government would soon establish a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the deaths.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga said Monday that the Kenyan parliament should “establish whether the deaths ... were acts of rogue pastors, human sacrifices or body-organ trade."

Leaders from the region and human-rights organisations have criticised the government's slow pace of rescues, and its denying journalists and activists access to the forest.

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