Bodies of cult victims returned to families

Kenyan authorities on Tuesday began releasing the bodies of victims of a doomsday starvation cult to distraught relatives. Deutsche Welle reports that the mass graves were discovered near the Indian Ocean town of Malindi last year. ‘It is a relief that we finally have the bodies but it is also disheartening that they are only skeletons,’ said William Ponda who lost his mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew in the tragedy. They were the first bodies to be handed over to their relatives for burial after months of painstaking work to identify them using DNA. Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his followers to starve to death in order to ‘meet Jesus.’ Mackenziehas pleaded not guilty to 191 counts of murder, manslaughter and terrorism. He has also been charged with child torture and cruelty.