Bereaved relatives emerged weeping from a hospital mortuary in Kenya on March 26 after recovering the remains of loved ones whose doomsday cult leader induced them to starve themselves, according to the authorities.
The bodies of more than 400 followers of the Good News International Church have been exhumed from the Shakahola forest in southeastern Kenya since April 2023 in one of the world's worst cult-related tragedies of recent decades.
Government officials have said the process of handing over the bodies was taking a long time because of exhumation, post-mortem and identification procedures. DNA testing has been used to identify some badly damaged remains.
Roseline Odede, chairperson of the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said the process should be accelerated. "Going at this rate, we are going to be here for 10 years, trying to identify the 390 plus bodies," she told reporters.
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