Kwa Binzaro : Children bore the brunt of the cult

Two hours' drive from the tourist town of Malindi, forensic teams turn off the tarred road into a thicket of thorn bushes, entering the Kwa Binzaro crime scene that came to light in mid-July.

Dozens of women and children have died after a suspected doomsday cult ordered them to fast to die and go to heaven. Like the Shakahola cult, children were to die first, followed by women. 

Detectives say they were preparing for the end of the world under the instruction of their powerful instructor, where they believed that starvation was their ticket to their salvation.

Already, 32 bodies have been recovered at the Kwa Binzaro new cult, with children and women being the most victims.

At the five-acre homestead believed to be the epicentre of the new cult, children's items have been recovered, including children's toys.

Detectives say children were ordered to fast in the sun so they would die faster. Women and men were next to follow the suicide plan.

ALSO READ: Kwa Binzaro cult death rises to 37 as exhumations suspended for postmortems

"Children were treated brutally; they were shut in huts for days without food or water. Then they wrapped them in blankets and suffocated them and buried them, even the ones still breathing," said a detective. 

The mass graves were found deep in the thickets a few kilometres from the five-acre homestead.

Chief Government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor says infants were found in graves with their mothers facing the opposite direction.

"In one of the graves, we found the body of an infant buried together with an adult," said Oduor.

At the five-acre homestead believed to be the death camp, a baby's potty chair was seen, indicating that very young children were part of the cult members who died in the forest.

Some baby clothes were also found buried in one of the graves at the homestead.

In another grave, tiny ribs were found with those of an adult. The pathologist said they belonged to a foetus which was almost to be born.

''The ribs are very thin, and it was found between the legs of a woman. This is an indication that the woman was pregnant; however, a post-mortem and DNA will be done to see if it was a mother and her foetus, said Dr Oduor.

The bodies of mothers and those of children were naked, indicating the cruelty they might have died from.

Coast Region Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha said investigations are ongoing and more arrests will be made.

Onyancha also urged families and the community to accept back and embrace members of the cult who were counselled to avoid them going back to the forest.

"Many people we see here are those that were rejected by their families after being rescued in Shakahola. "So we urge you to embrace them to avoid a repeat of the same," she said.

Onyancha also revealed that some arrests have been made in Magarini in connection to the cult.

Eleven people have been named as key suspects under investigation for alleged involvement in organised crime, radicalisation, aiding terrorism, and murder.

They include Jairus Otieno Odere, Lilian Akinyi, Kahonzi Katana Karisa, Loice Zawadi, Safari Kenga Nzai, Karisa Gona Fondo, Gona Charo Kalama, Kahindi Kazungu Garama, Thomas Mukonwe, James Kahindi, and Sharleen Temba Anido.

Victor Kaudo of the Malindi Community Human Rights Centre has asked the government to declare the Kwa Binzaro deaths a national disaster.

READ: How Makenzi's Kwa Binzaro cult operated in plain sight

"When children arrived at the five-acre home located in the Kwa Binzaro area, they were happy that they had found a new home, unknown to them the torture that awaited them," said Kaudo.

We are witnessing pregnant women being exhumed here. This calls for the government to give this matter the importance it deserves, he added. 

This comes as detectives investigating the Kwa Binzaro cult deaths, where 19 bodies have so far been exhumed, are now tracing the money trail amid revelations that funds were used to bankroll radicalisation and transport victims to the forest, where they fasted to death.

Documents tabled before the Malindi law court indicate that the suspects currently in custody channelled money to facilitate their operations, including renting houses in Malindi where followers were offered temporary shelter and radicalised before being ferried to Kwa Binzaro.

At the Kwa Binzaro 5-acre homestead, the houses were made of mud and iron sheets, raising a question of who was funding the operation.