Kenya starts to hand over to relatives the bodies of 429 members of a doomsday cult

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s government has begun handing over to relatives the bodies of 429 members of a doomsday cult at the center of a legal case that has shocked the country. Exhumed bodies from a vast rural area in coastal Kenya have shown signs of starvation and strangulation. Cult leader Paul Mackenzie is accused of asking his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus and now faces charges that include murder. Some outraged Kenyans have asked how authorities didn’t notice any sign of the mass deaths much earlier. The trial for the pastor and associates begins in April.