Police in Kenya begin exhuming shallow graves of suspected victims of religious cult

Police, pathologists and grave diggers have started the exhumation of 27 shallow graves in Kenya's Kilifi County.

The remains are believed to be of followers of a deadly cult in Chakama Ranch, a part of the Shakahola Forest. In 2023, more than 400 mass graves were discovered in the same forest, all members of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie's church.

They were encouraged to starve themselves to death to get into heaven. It remains one of the world's worst cult-related tragedies.

Mackenzie is still in jail and faces numerous charges of terrorism, child torture and murder. The remote forest has again been turned into a crime scene.

Morticians were seen carrying out body bag after body bag, some containing the remains of children believed to have been starved to death. State pathologist Dr Richard Njoroge said this is just the beginning, as investigators expect to find many more bodies: "Today we managed to exhume six.

"Of the six graves, we found five bodies and then also around that area we found ten different scattered body parts, scattered in different places on the surface." Eleven suspects have already been arrested in connection with these deaths and will appear in court on Friday. Police are investigating links to Mackenzie and members of his Good News International Church.

At the exhumation today, pathologists said they were still working to identify the bodies of those exhumed from Mackenzie's cult. "We had 453 at the closure of that exercise, I think, we released around 33 or 34 last time.

So, from there are 419 remaining," Dr Njoroge explained. Read more from Sky News:Captured ISIS fighters speaks from death rowIsrael begins first stages of takeover operation Police have encouraged families in the area with missing loved ones to come forward and provide their DNA samples, as efforts to identify the dead continue.

Kenya is grappling with a rise in religious extremism and many churches operating informally. Parliament passed several preliminary bills aimed at regulating religious organisations last year, but implementation has stalled after resistance from church leaders..