Four followers of a cult leader who were allegedly told to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus,” from a forest close to the town of Malindi on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast have reportedly died.
According to a police report seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP), fifteen others emaciated from taking part in the starving spree were also rescued after the police got information about the underground group. Six of those rescued were said to be in critical condition.
Police said they intervened after they got a security report that there were dozens of people starving to death at a private farm in the area, adding that medics were called in to assist in evacuation.
According to the report, the victims were starving after being brainwashed this was part of the way to “go and meet Jesus.”
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The Kenyan police added that they have started a manhunt for suspect Makenzie Nthenge, a pastor of Good News International Church, who had been arrested in the past over similar offences.
Media reports said Nthenge had been arrested and charged last month after two children were allegedly starved to death by their parents but was later freed on a bond of 100,000 Kenyan shillings (about $740).
The informer, an insider in the church, however told the police of a mass shallow grave with the bodies of 31 brainwashed victims in an unidentified place in Shakahola forest.
