Kenya's government has started the process of returning the bodies of 429 members of a doomsday cult to their relatives. The cult, led by Paul Mackenzie, has been at the center of a shocking legal case in the country.
The bodies, which were exhumed from a large rural area in coastal Kenya, have shown signs of starvation and strangulation. Mackenzie stands accused of instructing his followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus, resulting in charges that include murder.
Authorities are utilizing DNA testing to assist in the identification of the bodies and their respective families. The emotional process of handing over the bodies to relatives began on Tuesday at the Malindi mortuary, where families gathered to collect their loved ones for reburial. The scene was filled with overwhelming grief as some family members wailed in sorrow.
One grieving father, Francis Wanje, expressed his pain at losing eight family members, while only being able to retrieve four bodies due to DNA mismatches. He remains hopeful that the remaining four bodies will be identified in the future.
Mackenzie and several of his associates were charged in February with the torture and murder of 191 children. The trial is set to commence on April 23, with Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki declaring Mackenzie's Good News International Ministries a criminal organized group.
Mackenzie is currently serving a one-year prison sentence for operating a film studio and producing films without a valid license. Questions have been raised by some Kenyans regarding how authorities failed to detect the mass deaths sooner.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission recently criticized the police for not acting on reports that could have potentially prevented the deaths in the remote Shakahola area. Several reports had been filed at police stations by individuals whose relatives had entered the forested region.
