360 still missing as probe into Kilifi cult continues

Body bags are seen arranged as forensic experts and homicide detectives exhume bodies of suspected members of a Christian cult named as Good News International Church, who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death, in Shakahola forest of Kilifi county, Kenya April 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Over 360 people were still missing on
Thursday as the investigation into the unsettling cult in
Shakahola, Kilifi County, whose members died from starvation, reached its
seventh day.
Hassan Musa, Kenya Red Cross’s Coast
region manager told Citizen Digital that the missing people had been reported
at the Public Information, Tracing and Support Centre
by their family members.
“Of these, 198 are below 18 years
old and a majority of the adults are women,” Musa added.
He said so far, four victims had
been positively identified and reunited with their families.
As of
Wednesday evening, ninety-eight people had been confirmed dead in the incident
where Pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge of the Good News
International Church is said to have instructed members to starve themselves in
order to "meet Jesus".
Detectives
and pathologists have been combing through the Shakahola Forest since Friday for
more shallow graves and any of Nthenge's followers who might be hiding.
Meanwhile,
people from across the country continue to hang around the area for any
information on loved ones suspected to have been a part of the deadly cult.
Chakama
Ranch where Shakahola Forest is located has since been cordoned off
in the wake of the operation and a 30-day dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed.
The government on Wednesday also barred the media from
accessing the area.
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