Nairobi — The third face of the exhumation exercise of bodies in the Shakahola cult massacre will resume on Monday.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki announced on Sunday during a church service in Kirinyaga.

"We will be back at Shakahola forest to retrieve the buried bodies that are still there," he said.

Kindiki announced that detectives on the ground had discovered 22 mass graves, indicating the presence of additional bodies buried in the vast forest where the cult activities took place.

The death toll in the ongoing cult probe that has shocked the nation and the world stands at 242.

Pastor Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church, a former taxi driver turned preacher, is the main suspect in the probe.

Police accuse him of inciting his followers to fast to death "to meet Jesus."

"The people behind this horrifying incident are terrorists who were hiding behind religion to commit their atrocities," Kindiki said.

Mackenzie is in custody alongside his wife and 16 other people as investigations continue.

It remains a puzzle to date how Mackenzie, a father of seven, managed to evade law enforcement despite a history of extremism and previous legal cases.