Shakahola cult: How we stumbled on the biggest story of the year
What you need to know:
- What began as one family searching for their two missing children ended up with the discovery of mass graves, hundreds of bodies exhumed, and 600 more people missing.
- This is the story of how Farhiya Hussein and Jurgen Nambeka stumbled on the biggest story of the year.
It all started back in 2017, when Paul Mackenzie was arrested on charges of radicalisation and 'teaching in an unregistered institution. Some parents in Malindi had raised concerns about him advocating that their children not go to school.
The rogue preacher was then tried and acquitted later in October 2021.
His name pops up again in the mainstream media earlier this year for something far worse.
What began as one family searching for their two missing children ended up with the discovery of mass graves, hundreds of bodies exhumed, and 600 more people missing, in what is now dubbed as the Shakahola Massacre. The story soon picks up locally and spreads on global news.
Together with my Nation colleagues, our assignment was to do a keen follow-up on a story we had started about the two missing children. We had no idea what was before us.
Farhiya and Jurgen, the journalists who broke the Shakahola story, will be telling the behind-the-scenes account of covering Shakahola for Nation Media Group in a four-part podcast series. They talk about their experiences with grieving families, Kilifi locals, a powerful rogue preacher and a negligent government.
Listen to the first episode below.
