2023-04-26 14:28:21
Detectives and forensic experts began examining the site on Friday.
In the middle of a forest, not far from the Kenyan coast, piles of fresh soil topped with crucifixes attract the attention of forensic experts.
About 14 mass graves have been dug up so far and Hussein Khalid has watched the exhumation of dozens of bodies over the past four days.
“The stench is unbearable,” he told the BBC.
The victims were believed to be members of the Good News International Church. They would have been persuaded to starve themselves in order to reach paradise before what they had been told was the end of the world.
Mr Khalid heads the rights organization Haki Africa, which took authorities to the burial site late last week following being told by locals.
The location is “quite hidden” in the Shakahola Forest and he explains that he and his team had to cut shrubs and bushes to get there by car.
Some 89 bodies have been exhumed so far, but the final tally might be much higher as the Red Cross said 112 people were missing. Mr Khalid estimates that there are around 60 mass graves in the area and that only a quarter of them have been examined.
According to the police, 29 survivors have been found so far, but it seems that not all of them wanted to be rescued, so convinced were they of what they had been told regarding the end of the world.
On Sunday, Mr. Khalid passed by an “extremely frail” woman in her twenties, with hollow eyes. But she didn’t want anyone to help her.
“When we tried to give her first aid by giving her sips of water and glucose from a spoon, she flatly refused. She closed her mouth to say she didn’t want to ‘help,” Mr Khalid said, adding that the woman is now being treated in hospital.
He also met a man in his forties who was able to express himself.
“He said he didn’t need rescuing, he was sane, he knew what he was doing and he had to be left alone. He even called us a jerk. ‘enemies to go to heaven’.
This man was also taken to hospital.
Victor Kaudo of the Malindi Community Human Rights Centre, which is assisting in the exhumation of the bodies, believes there are around 150 bodies. He explains that his organization was contacted by a whistleblower who wanted help in saving his three children.
“We only saved one, which we found in a house, tied with a rope,” he told the BBC.
“We think this child was six years old. But his sister and brother were already dead and they had been buried the day before, before we arrived.
It is feared that more bodies will be discovered.
Beyond the forest itself, the population is shocked by the fact that dozens of people were able to voluntarily starve to death.
Kenya is a deeply religious country, with 85% of its population declaring themselves Christian.
President William Ruto, who is himself a pious man, described the head of the Good News International Church, Pastor Makenzie Nthenge, as someone who did not belong “to any religion”.
Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki called what happened a “massacre”.
Last month, Mr Nthenge was charged over the deaths of two children whose parents had joined his church. He was released on bail, but is back in custody.
Senate President Amason Kingi asked how “an evil of such staggering magnitude [pouvait] happen undetected”.
The question also arises as to why a person would starve himself.
Theologian and psychologist James Kipsang Barngetuny told the BBC there is a problem in Kenya with the “proliferation” of large numbers of small churches, which are not properly regulated.
According to him, unscrupulous leaders are able to brainwash people and take advantage of their desire to find a solution to their problems.
Back in the forest, Mr. Khalid learned that there was a deeper place where people gathered to pray and he urged the authorities to step up search and rescue operations in the forest, which spans 325 hectares.
Locals are beginning to visit graves to inform authorities of missing family members.
A man told Mr Khalid that his three sons, aged 21, 17 and 14, had been taken by his brother to join the church. He fears they are all dead.
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