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Kenyan police have unearthed 47 bodies near the coastal town of Malindi, as they investigate a preacher who allegedly told followers to starve to death.
The bodies of the children were among the dead. According to the police, the search is ongoing.
The shallow graves are in the Shakahola forest, where 15 members of the Good News International Church were rescued last week.
The leader of the church, Paul Makenzie Nthenge is in custody, pending a court appearance.
State broadcaster KBC described him as a “cult leader”, and reported that 58 graves had been identified.
One of the graves is believed to contain the bodies of five members of the same family – three children and their parents.
Mr Nthenge denied wrongdoing, but was refused bail. He insisted that he closed his church in 2019.
He allegedly told followers to starve themselves to “meet Jesus”.
The Kenyan daily, The Standard, said pathologists will take DNA samples and conduct tests to determine whether the victims died of starvation.
The police arrested Mr Nthenge on April 15 after discovering the bodies of four people suspected to have died of starvation.
Victor Kaudo of the Malindi Social Justice Center told Citizen TV “when we are in this forest and come to a place where we see a big and tall cross, we know that it means more than five people are buried there”.
The Kenyan interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, said all 800 hectares of the forest had been sealed off and declared a crime scene.
Mr Nthenge allegedly called three villages Nazareth, Bethlehem and Judea and baptized the followers in the ponds before telling them to fast, The Standard reported.
Kenya is a religious country and there have been past cases of people being lured into dangerous, uncontrolled churches or cults.
