Search continues for dead and alive as Kenyan Red Cross says 112 people have been reported missing

The death toll from a Christian cult in Kenya that practised starvation has risen to 67, after more bodies were recovered from mass graves in a forest in the south-east of the country.

A major search is under way in the Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi, where dozens of corpses were exhumed over the weekend. The bodies are thought to be those of followers of a cult who reportedly believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves.

Paul Mackenzie Nthenge reportedly told followers to starve themselves to ‘meet Jesus’

Twenty-one bodies have been exhumed in eastern Kenya in an investigation into a cult whose followers are believed to have starved themselves to death, police sources have said.

On Saturday officials reported seven deaths in connection with the inquiry after the arrest of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, who reportedly told followers to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus”.