Detectives uncover horror of cult’s secret graves in Kilifi

The red soil from freshly dug graves in the unforgiving heat invites you to the horror that has become of Shakahola village in Kilifi County.

The stench of death hangs heavily here and the gravity of the matter is registered on the faces of every man and woman you meet. The country is yet to come to terms with this latest episode of madness where members of a suspected cult starve themselves and their children to death.

For the locals, however, what remains most shocking is the sheer confidence some survivors are demanding to be left to die.

Yesterday, a team of pathologists and forensic experts started exhuming 32 burial sites believed to contain bodies. 

Authorities discovered seven bodies on Friday while digging up sites suspected to be secret graves used to bury starved followers of Pastor Paul Mackenzie’s church in Shakahola village, Kilifi County. 

There is fear that the bodies could be more than authorities had initially estimated if each site were to have more than one body each as was the case in the two yesterday.

In the first grave less than two feet deep, the body of a child was found wrapped in a bed sheet.

Forensic experts estimated the child to be less than five years old.

In an adjacent grave, two bodies, of an adult and a child, were found next to each other, separately wrapped in blankets.
 

The adult body appeared to be of a female, but experts at the site said they could not rule out the possibility of this observation changing once post-mortem results are released. The bodies could not have been more than four weeks old, but the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) cautioned that only a post-mortem could accurately tell the exact time frame.

The recovery brings the death toll to 17 since news of followers of controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church starved themselves to see “Jesus”. Sixteen followers have been rescued so far, including a 55-year-old man found yesterday in a hideout.

Given the scope of work at hand, the investigating team was forced to enlist the help of locals in digging the graves as they took a break. By the time of filing this report, the team was exhuming a second grave even as area chief Raymond Charo was at pains to explain how the cult operated right under his nose.

Was there intelligence shared of the cult? Did police fail to act on the report if there was any at all? How could such deaths and cult behaviour go on for so long undetected? These are some the questions whose answers the authorities are seeking.
 

The remoteness and inaccessibility of Shakahola is compounded by the isolation in which the village stands. Most manyattas here are clusters of traditional houses patched here and there, and because of the scattered nature of these villages, it has been difficult for the government to provide adequate security.

Locals interviewed by Saturday Nation said this has left them vulnerable and any attempt to snitch on the cult was met with attacks and death threats.

There is also the bit about the presence of non-locals in the group, who show up there in the middle of nowhere, ready to starve themselves to death.

The exhumation of five children’s bodies in the seven recovered yesterday shows the possibility of parents either coming with more than one of their children to the ‘starve-to-death’ site.

Langobaya Police Station is the closest but hardly serves its purpose as it is not properly equipped, security-wise. During operations to flush out and rescue the cult members three weeks ago, police had to get logistical and vehicle support from Malindi—some 80km away.

Handwritten note

A distance from where homicide sleuths were exhuming bodies, was a handwritten note inside an abandoned house.

“Ni mimi ndunge...yesu awe pamoja nawe.. hakika niombee msamaha kwa watoto wako...maana nliwaahidi nitakuwa nikiwapitia kuwaona lakini vile umesema nisikanyage kwako..hakika kutii ni bora kuliko dhabihu...naomba uwaambie sitaweza...wacha nifanye bidii nionane na wao katika ufalme wa yesu hiyo nchi mpya Amina...” it read.

Also found was a sticker titled 'The mark of the Beast End Time Messages' containing several bible verses to it. On it were several types of clothes, shoes and hairstyles that followers of the cult are not to wear and if they do, they “go to hell”.

Yesterday, people whose kin are believed to be Pastor Mackenzie's followers camped in Shakahola to know their fate. However, they were not allowed near the grave sites and were kept at bay pending the conclusion of investigations. Ms Esther Mkambe from Bungale said her younger sister and three children joined the church in Malindi and later relocated to the wilderness in Shakahola. She said her sister and two children were among those who died and got buried in the forest.

“I met my sister in February this year, and she was emaciated and weak and said they were starving in the forest,” she said.

Ms Mkambe said her sister disclosed that she broke a seven-day fast because she was sick.

“I asked her to take medicine, but she said it was against their beliefs. I am bitter with Pastor Mackenzie because he subjected our families to death while he is feeding and is healthy, ”she said.

Ms Mkambe said they had pleaded with the sister to come home, but she always gave excuses then stopped picking up their calls.“My sister said Pastor Mackenzie told them that the forest was safe for fasting away from public nuisance.”

Another local, Priscah Shida, said they chased the controversial pastor from the Bungale area where he had opened a church. The pastor, she narrated, had started brainwashing them not to educate their children.

“By then he did not tell the community to fast, but he said he was preaching the gospel and people should not go to school. But collectively, we could not entertain the thought of not educating our children. We chased him away and he settled in Shakahola where he continued with his weird sermons,” she said.

Contrary teachings

Pastor Thomas Karisa, 58, told Saturday Nation he ministered at Mackenzie’s church but fell out with him and opened his own church, Grace Mission. “By this time, Pastor Mackenzie was referring to himself as bishop, but his teachings were contrary to our values of embracing education. He used to tell us that going to school was a sin. It did not go well with my followers, and they started to rebel,” he said.

Pastor Karisa said he faced the wrath of his congregants, who threatened to ditch him if he continued to support Mr Mackenzie. “Shockingly, Pastor Mackenzie is well learned and speaks good Swahili and English. But he tells us to read the Bible only and not go to school because we will go to heaven,” he said.

Yesterday, a good number of abandoned, mostly grass and mud structures stood intact in the doomed village, their doors swinging open and banging shut in the wind. 

Pastor Mackenzie and 14 others remain in police custody in Malindi. The state accuses Mr Mackenzie of manipulating locals through skewed radical religious teachings, and fear of the unknown in pursuit of salvation, leading to many deaths.

According to investigations, Mr Mackenzie has been shaping the beliefs of his followers, some of whom are now being investigated for alleged horrific crimes, including starving and killing their children and later burying them in shallow graves.

The consequences of these beliefs are said to have been deadly, and some of those who followed his teachings have died.

The cult’s story broke when a murder incident report filed at Langobaya Police Station under OB Number 12/17/3/2023 linked the deaths of two children to the pastor. Court documents say the two, on advice from Mr Mackenzie, had starved and suffocated the children, Seth Hinzano and Evabra Dito.

They are suspected of burying the two minors on March 16 and 17 in a shallow grave at Shakahola. However, during an interview with Saturday Nation, Mr Mackenzie distanced himself from the accusations, noting he stopped preaching in 2019 and is currently farming in Shakahola village, where he bought land and occasionally visits.

Additional reporting by Maureen Ongala

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