Hundreds of doomsday cult members feared dead after starving themselves to death as bodies found with missing organs
HUNDREDS of doomsday cult members are feared dead after being told to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus.
So far 133 bodies have been found, many with their organs missing, raising fears the Kenya-based cult was harvesting them for sale.
Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, is in custody accused of ordering followers to starve themselves and their children.
The taxi driver-turned-pastor told them this would allow them to enter heaven before the end of the world, which he predicted would happen on April 15.
If the numbers feared dead materialise then it could rival the Jonestown massacre as one of the worst ever cult massacres.
American Jim Jones led 909 of his followers to their deaths in November 1978 in Guyana, South America.
The horror of the Good News International Church, cult began to emerge in mid-April.
Fifteen emaciated members of the church were rescued by the authorities, though four died before they reached the hospital.
A week later the first bodies were discovered in a remote forest 50 miles north of Malindi, a tourist resort by the Indian Ocean.
Workers wearing hazmat suits are continuing exhumations in the Shakahola forest and hundreds of cult members are still missing.
“We have many more graves in this forest, and therefore it leads us to conclude that this was a highly organised crime,” Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said during a visit to the site.
Martin Munene, a senior police inspector, revealed that organs have been removed from some of corpses found.
“Post-mortem reports have established missing organs in some of the bodies of victims who have been exhumed,” he said.
“It is believed that trade on human body organs has been well co-ordinated, involving several players.
“It is suspected that more bodies may be still buried in the expansive land covering more than 1,000 acres.”
Mackenzie turned himself into police and is facing charges that include terrorism and child trafficking but has yet to enter a plea.
His lawyer George Kariuki, said he was cooperating with police and wants the investigation not to be “one-sided” by focusing on him.
Police should keep an open mind in order to unravel the “mess”, Kariuki said, providing no further clarification.
Last week a court released on bail prominent televangelist Ezekiel Odero, who authorities say they suspect of being involved in the mass killing of his own followers.
Odero is also suspected of helping launder money for Mackenzie, according to court documents.
These state police say “huge cash transactions” thought to be linked to the sale of houses belonging to Mackenzie’s followers were traced to Odero’s bank accounts.