Two bodies recovered from Kenyan church in case with echoes of starvation cult

Kenyan police have recovered two bodies and rescued 57 people at a church in the country's west, according to an internal report, in a case with echoes of the starvation of hundreds of people in a doomsday cult in Kenya two years ago.

Police retrieved the two bodies from the premises of St Joseph Missions of Africa Church in Migori County on Monday, according to a police report seen by Reuters.

The body of a man was found “lying on the floor of a prayer room within the church compound” while “fully covered in a white robe and wrapped in a grey sheet”, the report said.

The 57 people who were rescued looked weak and frail and were taken to hospital but refused to be attended to by medical personnel and instead “began to make noises and (sing) religious songs”, it added.

A police spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

More than 400 bodies were exhumed from the Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya, nearly half of them children, after the discovery in 2023 of bodies in one of the world's worst cult-related disasters in recent history.

Prosecutors charged Paul Mackenzie, the leader of the Good News International Church, and his associates with murder, terrorism-related crimes, manslaughter and torture for allegedly ordering his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the world ended.

Mackenzie has denied the charges, and the cases are ongoing.

Reuters