Kenyan police have exhumed more than 47 bodies, including adults and children, of people from a Christian sect who believed in their elevation to heaven after a death by fasting, 700 km from the Kenyan capital.

The first bodies were discovered last week and exhumations began on Friday in a 325-hectare forest area in Shakahola, near Malindi in Kilifi County.

The bodies were in shallow graves in the east of the country, and local criminal investigation police are continuing the search for more bodies and survivors of the religious cult.

Kenya's Interior Minister, Kithure Kindiki, promised to visit the site today, and referred to the discovery as the "Shakahola Forest Massacre" in a tweet on Sunday.

The unfolding Shakahola Forest Massacre is the clearest abuse of the constitutionally enshrined human right to freedom of worship. Prima facie, large- scale crimes under Kenyan law as well as international law have been committed. While the State remains respectful of religious...

- Kithure Kindiki (@KindikiKithure) April 23, 2023

One church member found by the authorities refused to eat, despite being visibly weak. It is believed that some church members are still hiding from the authorities in the nearby forest.

The police said that 15 rescued faithful had been told to starve to death so that they could meet their maker. Four of them died before reaching hospital.

The police chief of Malindi sub-county, John Kemboi, said that more shallow graves have yet to be dug up on the land belonging to pastor and cult leader Paul Mackenzie, who was arrested on April 14 for links to cultism. Mackenzie has been on hunger strike in his cell since his arrest.

Mackenzie had already been arrested twice, in 2019 and in March of this year, in connection with the deaths of children. Each time, he was released on bail, and both cases are still ongoing in court.

The leader of the sect allegedly took advantage of the vulnerability of the victims, most of whom were women and children.

Last month, the police arrested Mackenzie for encouraging the parents of two boys to starve and suffocate their children to death.

During his court appearance in that case, Mackenzie said that he had no knowledge of the events that led to the death of the two boys, adding that he was the target of hostile propaganda from some of his former colleagues.