The family that starved themselves to meet Jesus

The bodies of three children and their parents were found in a cemetery in Kenya, along with more than 70 other Christian cult members who believed they would “meet” Jesus in heaven if they starved themselves.

Today, Kenyan police continue their search for victims of the “hunger cult” in the Shakahola forest in the east of the country. Officials have recovered 73 bodies so far.

The death toll, which has risen steadily over the past two days due to excavations in the forest, could rise further as the Kenyan Red Cross reported 112 people missing in a search it is managing.

Five members of the same family – three children and their parents – were found in a shallow grave. You probably aren’t there.

The sect was called the Good News International Church and its leader, Paul Mackenzie, was arrested after a tip suggested that shallow graves contained the bodies of at least 31 of his followers.

Kenyan homicide detectives and forensic experts from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are examining bodies exhumed from several shallow mass graves of suspected members of a Christian sect after they starved themselves to death on Sunday

Kenyan homicide detectives and forensic experts from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) examine bodies exhumed from several shallow mass graves on Sunday

Dozens more bodies were unearthed over the weekend and a 325-hectare woodland was declared a crime scene as authorities try to understand the true extent of the so-called “Shakahola Forest Massacre”.

Police officers in coveralls are now searching the site for more graves and possible survivors of the sect.

There are fears that some members are hiding from authorities in the surrounding bushland and are at risk of death if not found soon.

Several people have already been rescued and taken to the hospital in Malindi on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

A human rights group, which provided police with clues about the movement and its extreme practices, said at least one of those rescued refused to eat despite being in obvious physical distress.

Cult leader Mackenzie told his followers to starve to “meet Jesus” in heaven.

The cult was called the Good News International Church, and its leader Paul Mackenzie (pictured at a previous hearing in March) was arrested after a tip suggested shallow graves containing the bodies of at least 31 of his followers.

The exhumed bodies of victims of a religious cult were laid out on Sunday in the village of Shakahola near the coastal town of Malindi in southern Kenya.

A photo shows an abandoned house in the bush where buried bodies were unearthed in Shakahola outside the coastal town of Malindi on Sunday

The Kenyan Red Cross said 112 people had been reported missing to support staff in Malindi.

The leader of the cult, Makenzie Nthenge, turned himself in to the police and was charged last month after two children starved to death in their parents’ care, according to local media.

He has since been released on bail of 100,000 Kenyan shillings (£560).

The grim case drew national attention, and the government highlighted the need for tighter control over religious denominations in a country where rogue pastors and fringe movements are involved in crime.

Home Affairs Minister Kithure Kindiki, who announced he would visit the site on Tuesday, described the case as “the most flagrant violation of the constitutional human right to freedom of religion”.

But efforts to regulate religion in the predominantly Christian country have been fiercely opposed in the past, as attempts have been made to undermine constitutional guarantees of church-state separation.

Cults are widespread in Kenya, which has a largely religious society.

Police and local residents load the exhumed bodies of victims of a religious cult into a truck in the village of Shakahola near the coastal town of Malindi on Sunday.