The number of alleged members of a sect in southern Kenya who fasted to death to meet withn Jesus Christ has increased to 103the Police reported this Thursday, while exhumations continue in search of more corpses in a forest.

The regional police commissioner of the Kenyan coast, Rhodah Onyancha, has confirmed that figure after five bodies were unearthed in a forest near the town of Shakahola, about seventy kilometers from the tourist city of Malindi. “Since this is an area where arrests are also being made, so far we have 22 suspects in police custody. The operation continues,” Onyancha said in statements collected by local media from the area.

“When we closed the day on Wednesday, April 26, we had 39 rescues. Today we have not been able to rescue anyone, but our teams are still in the forest and continue with the operation,” added the police officer on the seventh day of operations in Shakahola. In the death toll are included, in addition to the bodies that the Kenyan authorities are discovering in the wooded area, at least eight people who died in the hospital for their poor condition after being rescued.

The suspect is a taxi driver

The President of Kenya, William Ruto, condemned this event last Monday as an act of “terrorism” and assured that the country will not tolerate “people who preach theirmisleading ermons that cause deaths”. Ruto has indicated that “it must be” in a jail the pastor of the church who allegedly convinced Kenyans to fast to death to “reunite with Jesus Christ”, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, of the so-called Good News International Church (International Church of Good News).

The Government imposed this Wednesday a curfew thirty days in the investigation area and, since then, the authorities have prevented access to the press. In a statement issued on Thursday, the Media Council of Kenya (MCK), the media regulator, said that denying journalists access to report on a matter of public concern will open the door to misinformation, rumors and confusion. . On April 13, and after receiving a leak, the Police raided the place where Nthenge’s followers were fasting and they rescued fifteen people, but four of them died on the way to Malindi hospital.

This police operation subsequently triggered the current excavations looking for graves Nthenge, a ecstasy, has been in police custody since last day 14 and pending a court appearance scheduled for next May 2 along with other suspects. Last March, the controversial pastor was already arrested after being accused of being behind the death of two children in similar circumstances, but he was released on bail.