STEPHEN Mwiti, a Kenyan father, is grieving the loss of his wife and six children, who he believes were among the dozens of cult members found dead in Shakahola forest and brought to a mortuary in the coastal town of Malindi on Wednesday.
Mwiti was too distraught to go identify the bodies himself. He waved a photo of his wife and four of his children as he spoke to reporters, saying, ‘My children are gone. The children who have been rescued, I went and had a look and I did not see my children.’
Mwiti explained that his wife had taken their children to live among members of the Good News International Church in 2021, and that he had been searching for them for the past six months. He said he would not collect his wife’s body if it was recovered, stating, ‘These problems I am experiencing, she is the one who brought them to me.’
According to the Kenyan Red Cross, more than 300 people have been reported missing, with 89 known to have died. The leader of the cult, Paul Mackenzie, has been in police custody since April 14, along with 14 other cult members. Hospital workers and Mwiti claim that Mackenzie had told his followers that the world would end soon and instructed them to starve themselves to be the first to reach heaven.
Authorities have recovered 95 bodies from shallow graves, while eight cult members were found alive but later died. Mackenzie has not yet spoken publicly about the accusations against him. Mwiti said he attempted to rescue his wife and children from the forest, where he saw them living with Mackenzie and about 50 other women and their children. He explained that they spotted people in the distance, but there was no way to reach them until they saw a car somewhere in the forest.
Mwiti said, ‘We tried calling out and nobody was responding to our calls. We cleared the way in. It’s then that we saw Mackenzie.’ The cult leader told them they could not pick up the children since they had all gone deeper into the forest.
