On Tuesday, the bodies of 429 members of a doomsday cult at the centre of a nationally shocking court case were turned over to their relatives by Kenya’s authorities.
Exhumed bodies from a large rural Kenyan coastal area have revealed evidence of strangling and malnutrition.
Cult leader Paul Mackenzie is currently facing charges, including murder, after it was alleged that he told his members to starve themselves to death in order to see Jesus.
DNA testing is being used by the authorities to identify deceased people and their families.
The first bodies were given to family members on Tuesday.
At the mortuary in Malindi, families were gathering loved ones for reburial, and emotions were running high as few cried out and frightene
Pointing to a hearse carriying four bodies,Francis Wanje, a parent who lost his daughter and seven other family members.
“We lost eight members of our family,” Wanje said. “We were supposed to get five, but were told that one of the children did not match the DNA.
“So now we have been given only four (bodies). So we are still hoping that perhaps in the future, we are going to get the other four.”
Mackenzie and his associates were charged with torture and murder of 191 children on February.
The trial is set to begin on April 23.
Mackenzie after found guilty of producing films without license is serving a separate one year prison sentence.
Interior minister Kithure Kindiki declared Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries as a criminal organized group.
