Forty new mass graves have been discovered in the vast Shakahola forest as phase four of the exhumation exercise resumed on Monday.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said the 40 graves which are yet to be exhumed are suspected to be containing multiple bodies.
Kindiki further reaffirmed the government’s commitment to crack down on rogue preachers.
Speaking during the official opening of the Deputy County Commissioner's office in Igoji subcounty in Meru county, Kindiki said the plan aims to ensure no other Kenyan falls prey to another Shakahola-like tragedy.
The number of deaths from the tragedy has so far hit 339 to date.
"We will do everything positive to make sure another Shakahola tragedy does not occur in our country. To the religious leaders opposing government's effort to crack down on rogue preachers, we will not relent," Kindiki said on Monday.
"Every religious leader must do their work in accordance with the Constitution and laws of our land. There is no difference between rogue preachers misleading their congregation and terrorists."
In May, post mortem conducted on the bodies exhumed from the Shakahola forest showed that most of the children were strangled to death.
Bodies of followers of Pastor Mackenzie’s Goodnews International Ministries have been found in shallow graves in the forest in what is being investigated as mass murder.
Mackenzie has been accused of brainwashing the victims into starving to death on the belief that they would meet Jesus Christ.
