Forensic experts and detectives from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (DCI) exhuming the body


An additional body has been found in Kenya believed to have starved to death while following the cult's doctrine of "starving to death to meet Jesus."

Kenyan police have unearthed an additional 323 bodies from a 7.21 million square meter forest near the Good News International Church in the southern coastal city of Malindi, local media reported.

This brings the total number of believers killed to 133, and five people have been rescued, bringing the total number of rescues to 5 so far.

Earlier, the church's cult leader, Paul Ntenge Mackenzie, was accused of causing the deaths of believers by prophesying the 68th of last month as the "day of the end" and saying, "You have to starve to death to meet Jesus."

The believers reportedly starved to death while fasting and praying briefly in the woods, according to Mackenzie's doctrine.

Police conducted autopsies and found traces of organ harvesting on their bodies.

Documents filed in court in the capital, Nairobi, showed that some of the bodies had organs removed, and police said the suspects forcibly harvested body parts.

Chief investigator Martin Muunene said "reports indicate that organs disappeared from some of the bodies of the victims that were exhumed" and that "the trafficking of human organs appears to have been carried out systematically," without giving details.

Investigators said Ezequiel Odero, a celebrity television evangelist who was arrested last month on suspicion of involvement in the same incident and was recently granted bail, had "received huge cash transfers" from Mackenzie's followers.

Pathologist Johanson Odoowo said an autopsy showed starvation as the leading cause of death, but some bodies, including children, also found signs of strangulation, beatings or asphyxiation.

Kenyan Interior Minister Kiture Kindiki said the exhumation of the bodies, which was interrupted by bad weather last week, would soon resume.

Locally, questions are being raised about how Mackenzie, a former taxi driver with a history of extremism, managed to evade justice despite his past history of transgressions.

(Photo=Reuters, Yonhap News)