The first autopsies carried out on Monday on 10 of the 109 victims found in a forest in southeastern Kenya, where a sect met, revealed deaths caused by hunger but also by asphyxiation, announced the head of forensic operations.
During the first day, doctors autopsied nine bodies of children between the ages of one and 10 and one of a woman, the head of the national forensic services, Dr Johansen Oduor, told the press.
"Most of them had features of starvation. We saw features of people who did not eat, there was no food in the stomach, the fat layer was very thin," said he detailed.
However, two children showed signs of death by asphyxiation. “From what we hear, there are indications that they (the children) were suffocated. This may be one of the causes of the asphyxiation. This was (the case) in two children,” said he asserted.
"All the bodies are decomposed and this complicates for us the calculation of the date of death", he added, also specifying that "no organ was missing".
The full results of the DNA sample identification may not be known for "months", said Dr Oduor.
Autopsies and identification operations began Monday at the morgue of the district hospital in the coastal town of Malindi.
At least 109 people, the majority of them children, died in the Shakahola forest where followers of a sect called the International Church of Good News gathered, according to a still provisional report.
The search for bodies and mass graves in this forest was suspended on Monday due to heavy rains.
These autopsies are a "crucial step", which "should take about a week if all goes well", Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said on Monday.
Investigators suspect that many followers died of starvation after following the precepts of the sect's self-proclaimed pastor, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, who advocated fasting to death "to meet Jesus".
But "preliminary reports that we are obtaining indicate that some victims may not have starved to death," Mr. Kindiki said on Friday, adding that some bodies bore wounds.
Shocked after the revelation of what is now called the 'Shakahola Forest Massacre', Kenya saw the case take an unexpected turn on Thursday with the arrest of one of the country's most famous pastors, Ezekiel Odero. , suspected of being linked to it.
"There is credible information linking the exhumed bodies (...) to Shakahola" with "several innocent and vulnerable followers (of the Odero church) who have died", say the prosecutors in a court document consulted on Friday by AFP.
The two pastors, currently detained, are due to appear in courts in two different cities on Tuesday.
ho-sva
01/05/2023 19:08:44 - Malindi (Kenya) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
