Shakahola Massacre: Autopsies reveal causes of death as starvation, asphyxiation

Seven out of nine children whose bodies were exhumed from the Shakahola forest, and later subjected to an autopsy, died from starvation.

According to Chief Government pathologist Johansen Oduor who spoke to the media on Monday, two other children died from lack of oxygen.

According to Oduor, pathologists were unable to determine what caused the death of an adult whose body was part of the autopsies conducted on Monday as the body had stayed in the grave for a while.

At the close of the search exercise on Monday, no victims had been rescued from the Shakahola forest as investigations into a cult that has led to the deaths of at least 109, stretched into a new week.

In the case, 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 are still combing through the Shakahola forest 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 last week also barred the media from accessing the area.

Police have also since arrested over ten members of the cult, as well as another controversial televangelist Ezekiel Odero who is being probed over his ties with Pastor Nthenge.

Mackenzie was charged last month after two children died of starvation while in their parents' care and is still in police custody.