The death toll from a Christian cult in Kenya that practised starvation has risen to 67, after more bodies were recovered from mass graves in a forest in the south-east of the country.

 

A major search is under way in the Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi, where dozens of corpses were exhumed over the weekend. The bodies are thought to be those of followers of a cult who reportedly believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves.

 

Police began combing a 325-hectare (800-acre) area of woodland surrounding the Good News International Church last week after receiving tipoffs from human rights activists and local people about the cult’s activities. An increasing number of people had gone missing in the area.

 

“We impressed on the police [the need] to go to more homes and find out what is happening,” said Hussein Khalid of human rights group Haki Africa.

 

The church leader, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, reportedly encouraged his followers to fast to death in order to “meet Jesus”. He is in custody pending a court appearance. It is believed some of his devotees could still be hiding in the bush around Shakahola.

 

Kenya’s interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, said initial findings suggested that “large-scale crimes” under national and international laws had been committed. “While the state remains respectful of religious freedom,” those responsible should face “severe punishment”, he tweeted.

 

In one grave an entire family of three children and their parents were found.

 

The quickly rising death toll has prompted concern and outrage from the country’s public and leadership.

 

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, said there was “no difference” between rogue pastors like Nthenge and terrorists. “Terrorists use religion to advance their heinous acts. People like Mr Mackenzie are using religion to do exactly the same thing.”

 

“I have instructed the agencies responsible to take up the matter and to get to the root cause and to the bottom of the activities of … people who want to use religion to advance weird, unacceptable ideology.”

 

The latest incident is not the first controversy concerning Nthenge, who faced allegations in 2017 and 2018 of radicalising school-age children and keeping his church open through corrupt means. Rights activists believe that the cult has been engaged in unlawful activities “for years”.

 

Amason Kingi, the speaker of the Kenyan senate, said: “The unfolding horror that is the Shakahola cult deaths should and must be a wake-up call to the nation, more particularly the National Intelligence Service and our community policing programme.

 

“How did such a heinous crime, organised and executed over a considerable period of time, escape the radar of our intelligence system?”

 

Nthenge was arrested last month after two children starved to death in the custody of their parents. He was released on bail of 100,000 Kenyan shillings (£590), but surrendered to police after the Shakahola raid.

 

Moves to regulate religion in the majority-Christian country have been fiercely opposed in the past, viewed as attempts to undermine constitutional guarantees for a division between church and state.