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Hundreds of bodies have been found in a Kenyan forest

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as part of an investigation into a religious cult that

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pushed its members to starve themselves in exchange for salvation.

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According to court documents, the cult's leader encouraged members to,

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quote, neglect the children to starve and die.

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CNN's David McKenzie spoke with families affected by the group's

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practices,

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and we warn you his report does contain disturbing material

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and may be hard to watch.

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He called it the wilderness,

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Luring his flock to a remote corner of Kenya,

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We've come to try and understand how,

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over many months, so many could die

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in the Shakahola forest, the data still being found,

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Forensic teams carefully remove the remains of members of a

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Christian death cult from shallow graves.

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They've already unearthed more than 300 people,

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many of them children, many showing signs of starvation.

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It's painful.

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It was so painful.

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It was so painful. Yeah,

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this is my daughter, Francis Wanjay says.

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His daughter and son-in-law both abandoned good jobs and took

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their children to the forest cult.

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What happened next is hard to comprehend.

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Able should die

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and to meet Jesus.

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And they have to start with the children.

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The members of the cult,

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including your own family, they were starving the children,

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yes. And then when the children didn't die quickly enough,

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they suffocate them. They suffocated.

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They suffocate them, Yes. And

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this is your own blood.

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And I wonder where my children or my child,

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my daughter

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could change to be such an animal,

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a world animal,

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to kill her own children.

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Pastor Paul McKenzie began his cult in Malindi.

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This is the church where Pastor McKenzie had a huge

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following in his sermons.

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He amplified his message online.

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He preached A doomsday prophecy for at least a decade,

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calling on the faithful to reject modern society,

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pull children from school, avoid hospitals.

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He demanded total devotion.

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You must deny yourself. You must reject yourself.

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You must reach a point of ending your life,

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he says, For the sake of Jesus.

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His antigovernment stance got him arrested and detained,

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but never prosecuted. In 2019,

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the church was closed down.

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Later, the pastor started his forest community.

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We found a former cult member in Malindi.

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We agreed to hide her identity for her own safety.

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She escaped the forest last year.

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Why did you move your whole home and all your

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children and move into the forest?

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The pastor used to call me,

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she says. He was calling me,

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telling me, my daughter, you are being left behind,

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and when the arc is closed,

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it will be too late.

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So I decided to go.

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When the COVID pandemic hit,

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she says, many saw it as evidence that the prophecies

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were real.

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Mackenzie charged her family $80.00 for a piece of land

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in Galilee.

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There were seven other biblically named settlements in Chocohola with

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more than 1000 followers,

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she says. Still, cult members made regular trips to a

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nearby village for food and water in December.

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Those trips suddenly stopped, says this village elder.

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The starvation had begun,

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he says. They alerted authorities,

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but they did nothing, even after hungry children started escaping

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to the village.

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What's been called the Shakahola massacre has shocked this nation.

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Pastor Mackenzie and his closest followers are being held under

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terror laws.

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What happened in the forest with your followers?

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I can tell nothing about that.

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Because I've been in custody for two months,

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so I don't know what what is going outside there?

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Have you been there?

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Francis Wanje says there needs to be justice.

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He mounted a rescue mission to get his grandchildren out.

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When they found his grandson,

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Ephraim, he was close to starvation.

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His two brothers were already dead.

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He went through hell,

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but he went through hell.

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I'm telling. In fact,

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when he was rescued, he told them that.

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If you could come here maybe

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late, a bit late, already found me,

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had already gone to see Jesus because the

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grief is there.

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The very highest levels of the Kenyan government have apologized

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for their inaction and the pain it has caused.

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The scale of what happened in the forest is still

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being understood.

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Hundreds are still missing and many more mass graves need

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to be exhumed.

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David Mackenzie, CNN, Melindy, Kenya.