The government yesterday performed a postmortem on 24 more bodies exhumed at the Shakahola forest with children dominating the list.

Chief Government Pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor yesterday established that 23 out of 24 victims of the Shakahola massacre cult belong to minors.

In the report, Dr Oduor said the cause of the death could not be established as the bodies were badly decomposed.

He, however, confirmed that only six of the victims were established to have succumbed to hunger.

He further reported that 24 more bodies are awaiting postmortem today before the end of phase four of the exercise in the Malindi sub-county district hospital morgue by the end of this week.

Controversial preacher

The suspected cult linked to controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church has seen the deaths of more than 425 people so far, with over 600 people still reported missing. Mackenzie, who is currently detained, is accused of brainwashing his followers to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus. “More than 4,000 churches are registered in Christian-majority Kenya.

But efforts to weed out crooks and charlatans through regulation have been thwarted by accusations that this would violate constitutional guarantees for freedom of religion.