Police said suspected Christian sect members who fasted to death in southern Kenya to meet Jesus Christ numbered 336 after ten more bodies were exhumed on Friday.

Kenyan Coast Regional Police Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha said in statements released by local media that work in the Shakahol forest was suspended today “to prepare for the autopsy of the bodies who were exhumed in the third stage.”

Onyancha pointed out that Their relatives have identified 19 people, and there are still 613 missing people.

Except, 95 people were rescued alive, 36 were arrested. in connection with the so-called “Shakahol massacre” and 93 DNA samples were collected from relatives.

Last Wednesday brought to trial by Shanzu in the coastal city of Mombasa (south) the head of a sect who allegedly swayed victims Pastor Paul McKenzie was fasting along with his wife and twenty-eight other suspects.

At the request of the prosecutor’s office, Judge Yusuf Shikanda ordered the transfer of Mackenzie and the others who were in police stations to a prison in the coastal city of Malindi, where they will remain until a new turnout scheduled for June 21. .

The prosecutor’s office made a request in connection with the apparent weakness of some of the suspects (one could not even stand in court), who supported the hunger strike in the police to be forced to eat in prison and avoid the risk of death.

Those who have not stopped eating are Mackenzie and one of his assistants, according to information provided in court.

Last Monday, a total of 65 victims rescued from the forest stood trial in Shanzu on charges of attempting suicide by refusing to eat at the rescue center.

The prosecutor’s office filed a motion to place them in a pre-trial detention center, since the said detention center can no longer contain them.

From the graves and mass graves in that forest, almost all those who died during the “Shakahol massacre” were exhumed, with the exception of a few who died in the hospital due to a serious condition.

Autopsies of over a hundred bodies showed that while all showed signs of starvation, the corpses of at least three minors and one adult also showed signs of strangulation and asphyxiation.

Initial police investigations suggest that believers were forced to continue fasting even if they wanted to give it up.

Kenyan President William Ruto apologized on behalf of the government on May 14 for failing to prevent the loss of life.

McKenzie, who has been in police custody since April 14, leads the Good News International Church.

The ecstasy driver, the pastor, was arrested in March last year and charged with the death of two children under similar circumstances, but was released on bail.

(EFE)