The figures coming from the Shakahola forest plunge Kenya deeper into horror every day. In the east of the country, eight new bodies were exhumed on Wednesday, bringing to 98 the death toll in a sect that advocated extreme fasting to "meet Jesus".

After announcing Tuesday night a pause in the search for mass graves to conduct autopsies and unclog morgues, authorities resumed searches Wednesday morning. "We had a lot of difficulties today with the rain but in the end, we had eight bodies out," a police source said Wednesday night, adding: "We will continue operations tomorrow."

Self-proclaimed 'pastor' imprisoned

The search has so far found 39 people alive in the vast 325-hectare bush area patrolled by investigators, said regional prefect Rhoda Onyancha. A total of 22 people have been detained, she added.

Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, the self-proclaimed "pastor" of the sect called the Good News International Church, is in jail after turning himself in to police on April 14 during the first police operations in the forest. He is scheduled to appear in court on May 2.

A majority of children among the victims

The revelation of what is now called "the Shakahola Forest Massacre" has sparked stupor in Kenya and calls for repression of sects in the predominantly Christian country. Police discover every day the extent of this "massacre", in which a majority of children appear, said three sources close to the investigation. According to Hussein Khalid, director of the NGO Haki Africa, which alerted the police to Paul Mackenzie Nthenge's activities, the "pastor" had advocated starving children first, then women and finally men before the end of the world which was to come in June.

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