Mackenzie, 28 others convicted of murder over Shakahola deaths

By Caroline Waforo

MOMBASA – Controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 28 co-accused were today found guilty of the murder of 191 people, including 190 children, in the Shakahola massacre, one of the most harrowing criminal cases in Kenya’s history.

Delivering judgment at the Mombasa High Court, Lady Justice Diana Kavedza convicted the accused on 191 counts of murder. The deaths occurred between January 2021 and September 2023 at Shakahola in Malindi Sub-County, Kilifi County.

The court found that the victims died through an organised system in which religious teaching and a rigid hierarchy were used to direct and enforce fasting to death among Mackenzie’s followers.

“The evidence before me establishes precisely such a development. Mackenzie’s followers were first whipped through an established religious and communications network. They were subsequently directed to relocate. Once at the settlement, they were directed to fast,” Justice Kavedza ruled.

A structured system of enforcement

The judge found that the order to fast was relayed through village elders, reinforced at regular meetings and enforced through a structured system. Fasting was applied in stages, starting with children, while guards controlled movement and stopped followers from leaving.

Justice Kavedza also held that Good News International Church, which Mackenzie founded in 2010, operated as a cult. The court heard that he preached the imminent end of the world, discouraged modern medicine and formal education, isolated followers from outsiders and promoted fasting as a path to heaven.

Evidence before the court showed that children were restrained, denied food and punished for trying to eat or escape. Surviving witnesses described watching siblings and other minors suffer and die.

Evidence from 123 witnesses

The prosecution called 123 witnesses, among them child survivors and adult accomplice witnesses. Their testimony was backed by digital recordings, social media content, medical and forensic reports, DNA analysis, physical exhibits, journals kept by the dead and expert evidence.

Crime-scene evidence showed that bodies were exhumed from graves across several homesteads and from mass graves. One held 12 bodies, and another site had several graves containing 63 bodies.

Prosecution witness Dr Njoroge produced 190 postmortem samples relating to dead minors. Medical evidence attributed 76 deaths to starvation and 112 to unascertained causes. One death was linked to a traumatic head injury, one to manual neck compression and one to asphyxia with features of starvation.

The court also considered evidence that burials were conducted at unusual hours to avoid detection, and that the settlement was divided into 12 villages to administer and enforce the fasting directives.

The convicted

Those convicted include Mackenzie, his deputy pastor Smart Deri Mwakalama, Stephen Sanga Muye and 26 others.

Two other accused, Kelvin Saudi Asena and Edison Safari Mnyambo, died during the trial. Murder charges against them were subsequently withdrawn.