NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenya’s investigation into suspected cult deaths in Kilifi county took a grim new turn Thursday after police exhumed seven more bodies in Kwa Binzaro village and collected 54 scattered body parts, bringing the death toll to 12.
Government pathologist Richard Njoroge, who was present at the site, said the condition of the newly recovered remains suggested more recent burials.
“We have noted that at this particular site, the bodies look a bit fresh. They are not fully skeletonized like last week. The bodies we exhumed last week were full skeletons with no flesh, but these bodies that we found here look to have been buried a few months or weeks ago,” Njoroge said.
The latest recovery follows the recovery of five bodies from graves in the same area on Aug. 21, raising concerns of another massacre reminiscent of the 2023 Shakahola tragedy.
Authorities have urged relatives with missing loved ones to submit personal details and DNA samples at a Kenya Red Cross desk at Malindi District Hospital for possible identification.
The exhumations mirror the horrors of the Shakahola Forest Massacre, also in Kilifi, where the bodies of more than 400 victims of the Good News International Church led by Pastor Paul Mackenzie were uncovered in 2023.
Many were found to have died from starvation, suffocation and violence in what investigators described as a starvation cult.
Kilifi is 426 kilometers (265 miles) southeast of Nairobi.