Interior Cabinet Secretary Kindiki Kithure has said the government will convert Shakahola Forest into a national memorial site.
This is after bodies of more than 250 people linked to a cult have been exhumed. Moreover, Kenyans were dumb struck after mass graves were discovered in the 325-hectare (800-acre) bushland that lies inland from the Indian Ocean town of Malindi.
The cult controversial pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is facing various charges in the case, including driving his followers to death by preaching that starvation was the only path to God.
Moreover, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki on Tuesday, June 6 stated that the forest where grave crimes have been committed will not remain as it was.
“The government will convert it into a national memorial, a place of remembrance so that Kenyans and the world do not forget what happened here,” he said in a statement.
Nonetheless, detectives commenced a third phase of exhumation on Tuesday, discovering nine more bodies to take the death toll to 251.
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The CS reported that activities of the cult had extended beyond Shakahola forest, and that “comprehensive, methodical, and scientific” investigations had extended to a ranch in the area stretching over more than 14,980 hectares (37,000 acres).
“Once the ongoing exercise is concluded, a congregation of believers from all faiths and the national leadership shall convene for a commemoration service,” Kindiki stated.
Furthermore, while starvation seems to be the main cause of death, autopsies conducted by the government revealed that some of the victims of the cult including children were strangled, beaten or suffocated.