Autopsies on corpses found in mass graves linked to a church : Police

The police in Kenya have said that autopsies carried out on corpses found in mass graves linked to a religious cult in Kenya have revealed missing organs, thereby raising suspicions of forced organ harvesting.

Investigators said that a fresh round of exhumations was set to resume Tuesday (today).
Recall that over hundred corpses were discovered in mass graves in April near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi in Kenya.
The discovery has stunned the deeply religious Christian-majority country in what has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”.
Police in the country believe that most of the bodies belong to followers of a self-styled pastor, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, who has been accused of ordering the followers to starve to death “to meet Jesus.”
But the latest revelation showed that starvation appears to be the main cause of their death, the chief government pathologist, Johansen Oduor, reportedly said that some of the victims including children were strangled, beaten, or suffocated.
The Punch reports that court documents filed on Monday said that some of the corpses had their organs removed while police alleged that the suspects were engaged in forced organ harvesting.
Chief Inspector, Martin Munene, said in an affidavit filed to a Nairobi court that “Post-mortem reports have established missing organs in some of the bodies of victims who have been exhumed.”
He added that it is “Believed that trade on human body organs has been well coordinated involving several players,” but gave no details about the suspected trafficking.
Munene said that a high-profile televangelist, Ezekiel Odero, who was arrested last month in connection with the same case and granted bail on Thursday had received “huge cash transactions,” allegedly from Mackenzie’s followers who sold their property at the cult leader’s bidding.
The Nairobi court ordered the authorities to freeze more than 20 bank accounts belonging to Odero for 30 days.
So far, a total of 112 people have been confirmed dead, according to the Kenyan Interior Minister, Kithure Kindiki, who spoke on the matter on Tuesday after arriving in Malindi to supervise the resumption of exhumations, which had been suspended last week because of bad weather.
 Kindiki said that “Search and rescue efforts for persons suspected to be holed up in the thickets and bushes have been going on.”
Meanwhile, there have been questions about how the self-styled cleric, Mackenzie, managed to evade law enforcement despite a history of extremism and previous legal cases against him.
It was gathered that Mackenzie, who was a taxi driver turned himself in on April 14th after police acting on a tip-off first entered Shakahola forest where some 30 mass graves have now been found.
Prosecutors are reportedly asking to hold the father of seven, who founded the Good News International Church in 2003, for another 90 days until investigations are completed.
Senior principal magistrate Yusuf Shikanda said he would rule on the request on Wednesday.