Four persons have been found dead after starving as part of the way to “go and meet Jesus,” at a private farm in the coastal town of Malindi in Kenya.
Fifteen others emaciated from taking part in the starving spree were also rescued after the police got information about the underground group. Six of those rescued were said to be in critical condition.
Police said they intervened after they got a security report that there were dozens of people starving to death at a private farm in the area.
According to the report, the victims were starving after being informed this was part of the way to “go and meet Jesus.”
The police added that the person behind the brainwashing was a pastor of Good News International Church, who had been arrested in the past over similar offences.
The security officers who visited the scene on Thursday were able to reach a few households and managed to rescue 15 people, six of who were emaciated and in critical condition.
Medics were called in to assist in evacuation but four of the victims died in the process, police said.
The informer, an insider in the church, told the police of a mass shallow grave with the bodies of 31 victims of the brainwashing in an unidentified place in a forest.
Authorities have decried rising cultism in the coastal area, calling for serious attention and efforts to address the issue.