Kenyan families weep for starvation cult victims as first bodies released

Relatives offload the exhumed remains of Esther Biriya Masha who was a follower of the Christian cult named Good News International Church, who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death in Shakahola, from a private hearse as the authorities begin to hand over bodies to family members, at the Star Specialist hospital funeral home in Malindi, Kilifi county, Kenya March 26, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

MALINDI, Kenya (Reuters) - Bereaved relatives emerged weeping from a hospital mortuary in Kenya on Tuesday 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.