‘UNBEARABLE’

Kenya Starvation Cult Death Toll Rises to 89 as Cops Dig Up More Bodies

The dead are believed to have been members of a group known as the Good News International Church, instructed by their leader to starve themselves “to meet Jesus.”

Police in Kenya have exhumed dozens more bodies from shallow graves in a case believed to involve a religious starvation cult, bringing the total death toll to 89, authorities with the country’s Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. “The majority of the bodies exhumed are children,” an unnamed forensic investigator told AFP. The graves were discovered on an 800-acre farm owned by Paul Makenzie Nthenge, the leader of the so-called Good News International Church. “The stench is unbearable,” a witness told the BBC. Mackenzie, a Christian televangelist, is believed to have asked his followers to abandon “earthly life” and starve themselves “to meet Jesus,” according to Al Jazeera. He was arrested on April 14 alongside 14 other members of the cult, according to police. Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki told reporters at the scene that another three people had been found alive on Tuesday, bringing the total number of survivors found so far to 34.