Nairobi — Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition leaders have faulted security agencies for failing to detect and deter the Shakahola cult killings.
By Monday evening, more than 60 bodies had been exhumed from shallow graves in the dense forest where people are said to have been brainwashed to starve to death so that they can "meet Jesus."
"Our criminal justice system failed the people of Kilifi in the same way it has failed the country countless times. This is a colossal failure of the State. It is an unforgivable failure of the security intelligence system," said Minority Leader in the National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi.
Wandayi and his Senate counterpart Stewart Madzayo said it is shocking that local security officers, chiefs and the National Intelligence Services (NIS) were unable to detect Pastor Paul Mackenzi's atrocities leading to hundreds of deaths.
A major search is under way in a forest near the coastal town of Malindi where dozens of corpses were exhumed over the weekend, with authorities fearing more grisly discoveries could be made.
A full-scale investigation has been launched into the Good News International Church and its leader, named in court documents as Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, who preached that death by starvation delivered followers to God.
It is believed some of his devotees could still be hiding in the bush around Shakahola, which was raided by police earlier this month after a tip-off from a local non-profit.
Since then, a number of people have been rescued and dozens of bodies unearthed in mass graves dug in shallow pits.
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"58 people (have been) confirmed dead and this is out of bodies exhumed and those who died on the way to the hospital," said police chief Japhet Koome who visited the site on Monday.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Wandayi said that the massacre calls for re-evaluation and redefinition of the security and intelligence systems on what it considers to constitute national security threat.
"That so many people could walk away from their homes, stay away for so long, starve and die without anyone noticing or reporting something amiss demands an urgent public inquiry with consequences for those who slept on the job," he said.
A 325-hectare (800-acre) area of woodland has been declared a crime scene as teams clad in overalls search for more burial sites and possible cult survivors.
Ruto, speaking in Kiambu county neighbouring Nairobi, said there was "no difference" between rogue pastors like Nthenge -- who has been arrested and is awaiting trial -- and terrorists.
"Terrorists use religion to advance their heinous acts. People like Mr Mackenzie are using religion to do exactly the same thing."
"I have instructed the agencies responsible to take up the matter and to get to the root cause and to the bottom of the activities of... people who want to use religion to advance weird, unacceptable ideology."
