Three years on from Kenya's Shakahola cult murders, families still seek closure

In March 2023, a man reported to Kenyan police that relatives who had joined a new church had not come home. Authorities began searching the area, around the Shakahola forest, near the coastal town of Malindi – and found hundreds of shallow graves. 

While a number of people were also found alive after the alert had been raised, hundreds more remain missing to this day.

Elizabeth Dzidza Mwatsuma’s remains were identified through DNA profiling more than three years after she disappeared into the Shakahola forest.

In May this year, her relative Alice Mwajuma Deche was finally able to bury her.

But Deche, 66, still has 11 more members of her family to find. She lost two children and 10 grandchildren in the massacre. 

“We have been through a difficult time. This was not an ordinary event. Losing 12 relatives is hard. But we are grateful that we found one of them," she told RFI.

Francis Wanje, a teacher, found his eight-year-old grandson in the forest on 17 March, 2023 after a distress call from his son.

He was the first survivor to come out of Shakahola. The boy’s two younger siblings had starved to death there.

Wanje’s family lost eight relatives in all, but has only been able to bury four.

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Conflicting accounts

Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International church, has been charged with 191 counts of murder, manslaughter and terrorism in connection to the Shakahola deaths – charges he denies.

Thirty accomplices are also on trial in the case. 

The state argues that the accused acted with a common purpose, and that children who died as a result of fasting could not have consented. 

Over the course of the trial, differing accounts of what happened in the Shakahola forest emerged.

Witnesses said some of the accused worked at the site, in the role of village elders, guards, gravediggers and cooks.

One of the accused, Steven Sanga Muye, testified that people lived in Shakahola voluntarily and that fasting instructions came from the Holy Spirit, not Mackenzie.

But Lucas Owino Ogola, another co-accused, said he was forced to fast and was assaulted for refusing.

Steven Ngugi testified in April that he helped dig graves and bury the dead in good faith as a community member, according to a statement from the prosecution office.

He said the deaths were treated as spiritual rather than medical events, and that the group used “weddings” as a coded term for them.

Mackenzie, along with dozens of other suspects, faces charges of manslaughter, terrorism, child cruelty, torture and denial of education in several other cases which have yet to be tried.

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Stigma

By October 2023, a Kenyan senate inquiry had recorded 428 bodies exhumed, plus one suspect who died in custody. Later exhumations brought the number of bodies recovered to 446.

Of the 443 bodies and body parts held at the Malindi mortuary, only 34 have been positively identified through DNA matching.

Kilifi County executive committee member for health, Peter Mwarogo, says some families had traced their relatives but declined to collect the remains for cultural reasons.

“Some people were able to trace their relatives, but they refused to come and take the body because of the stigma," he said. 

The county has given the families until mid-October to claim remains. Those left unclaimed will be buried through a court-approved process at a site near Shakahola by December, with the graves arranged so the dead can still be identified later.

Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the identification process has been slowed by the condition of the remains, and difficulties obtaining DNA reference samples from relatives.

“The biggest problem is not funds. More people need to come out and give their DNA samples for matching."

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Regulating churches

The Commission on Administrative Justice, Kenya’s ombudsman, noted that there was “a gross dereliction of duty” by officials of the National Government Administration and the National Police Service, who ignored warnings about Mackenzie’s activities between 2021 and 2023.

It called the deaths preventable and recommended disciplinary action for six officials.

Elema Halake, chief executive of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, called the case a multi-agency failure.

The Shakahola tragedy has also opened a debate over how to regulate churches in Kenya without infringing on freedom of religion.

A presidential task force set up in May 2023 handed its report to President William Ruto in July 2024, recommending a separate statute and the re-registration of all religious institutions.

The resulting Religious Organisations Bill also proposed to penalise leaders who extort money through false miracles.

While cabinet approved a draft in July 2025, its application was stalled after the clergy appealed for the bill to be withdrawn.

“The laws are present, we have enough regulatory policies but they are not followed,” says Bishop Francis Omondi of the Anglican Church.

But for task force chairman, Rev Mutava: "Our greatest fear is that if this is not implemented, we are likely to see another Shakahola."