Kenya 'Starvation Cult' Deaths: 47 Bodies Found In Investigation

While looking into a preacher who allegedly encouraged followers to starve to death, Kenyan authorities excavated 47 dead close to the coastal town of Malindi.

Children's bodies were among the dead. Exhumations, according to police, are ongoing.

15 Good News International Church members were rescued last week from shallow graves in Shakahola woodland.

Paul Makenzie Nthenge, the church pastor, is being detained pending his court date.

He was referred to as a "cult leader" by the state radio KBC, which also noted that 58 burials had so far been located.

Three children and their parents are thought to be buried in one of the graves together with two other family members.

Despite Nthenge's denial of culpability, bail was denied. He is adamant that his church would close in 2019, BBC reported.

He allegedly advised followers to starve themselves to "meet Jesus".

The Standard, a Kenyan newspaper, reported that pathologists will collect DNA samples and run tests to ascertain whether the victims' causes of death were malnutrition.

On Apr. 15, after finding the bodies of four people they believed had starved to death, police detained Nthenge.

"When we are in this forest and come to an area where we see a big and tall cross, we know that means more than five people are buried there," Victor Kaudo of the Malindi Social Justice Centre told Citizen TV.

According to The Standard, Nthenge allegedly called three settlements Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Judea, and baptized followers in ponds before instructing them to fast.

Kenya is a religious nation, and there have been instances in the past where individuals were persuaded to join hazardous, unmonitored churches or cults.