Faith Misused: How Mackenzie Seized Assets and Erased Identities!

News that a mass grave had been discovered in Shakahola Forest shook the country, prompting a multi-agency operation by government agencies.

On March 25, 2023, the mainstream media carried a lead story on the horrifying discoveries of scores of people buried in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest, Malindi County.

The news of the discovery and exhumation spread like wildfire and shocked the country. Investigations started, and authorities attributed the unfolding massacre to a religious sect linked to Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie.

Tragedy in Shakahola: Unearthing the Depths of Despair in Chakama Ranch

On April 25, 2023, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration gazetted Shakahola and the entire Chakama ranch as a disturbed area and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew for 30 days.

On the same day, the government launched a search and rescue operation running concurrently with the identification of the mass graves and the exhumation of bodies. 112 bodies were exhumed.

In the period running between April 25, 2023, and October 2023, the government led a search & rescue operation that ran concurrently with the exhumation of bodies in several mass graves.

At the end of the exercise, a total of 429 bodies were exhumed, including 67 adult people and 25 children rescued. The Kenya Human Rights Commission, on its part, monitored all parts of the operation: search, rescue, exhumation of bodies, and the postmortems.

Mackenzie allegedly lived with hundreds of his followers in makeshift homes of polythene sheets in the forest, divided into areas of biblical names including Judea, and Jerusalem.

Mackenzie allegedly told his followers that the world was going to end and that the devil was to start ruling for 1, 000 years. He ordered them to starve themselves and their children so that they could meet Jesus in heaven.

Exploitation Amidst Pandemic: The Chilling Strategy of Mackenzie to Isolate and Control Followers

A recent report by KNHCR reveals that Mackenzie exploited people’s vulnerabilities and recruited hundreds of followers across the country, which peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The commission said Mackenzie manipulated the gullible followers to dispose of their earthly possessions and lured them with promises of a serene life in Shakahola as they prepared for the end of the world in August 2023.

Mackenzie, as per the report, would dispossess the followers of their livelihoods and life savings, then persuade them to destroy their vital documents such as birth certificates, national identity cards, passports, title deeds, academic documents, and marriage certificates.

“He intentionally isolated his followers from their relatives and the rest of the society by confining them in the desolate Shakahola wilderness, which had no telephone connectivity, transport infrastructure, or social services such as schools and hospitals,” reads the report in part.

In 2019 Mackenzie relocated his church to Shakahola Ranch, where he lured his followers with the promise of cheap and affordable arable land. The influx intensified during the COVID-19 period in 2020. Eventually, Mackenzie called on his followers to begin fasting in readiness for the end of the world in August 2023.

From Indoctrination to Desolation: The Harrowing Path of Fasting and Control in Shakahola

Upon relocating his church from Malindi to Shakahola, Mackenzie is reported to have effected his ideology of indoctrination and radicalization by declaring a fasting regime that would culminate in the ascension to heaven of his followers.

The children were to be the first to starve, followed by women, then men, and finally Pastor Mackenzie, who would ascend to heaven from the center of Malindi in August 2023.

Mackenzie, according to KNCHR, also recruited a group of armed militias who were to supervise and enforce the fasting and eventual deaths of the followers.

“In the meantime, they dug shallow graves where they buried those who succumbed to starvation. Those who defied the directive to fast or attempted to escape were either strangled or clobbered to death by the militia,” read the report.

The Commission said its witnesses said that they were denied food and water, held in very harsh and squalid conditions, and prohibited from leaving the Shakahola ranch by Mackenzie and his militia. Those who hesitated refused to fast, or attempted to escape were brutalized. The deceased were buried in shallow mass graves in the absence of their relatives and without befitting cultural and religious rites.

To lure more followers, Mackenzie registered a TV company, Good News Media (K) Limited on April 19, 2012 operating from Malindi, Kilifi County. The directors and shareholders as of June 16, 2023, of the media company were Shadrack Musau Mutiso and Paul Nthenge Mackenzie each with 50 percent shareholding. Mackenzie also broadcast his sermons through a YouTube channel that had 677 videos and over 7,000 subscribers.

Judicial Oversight and Administrative Failures: The Path to Proclaiming Good News International Ministries a Criminal Entity

The Good News International Ministries, it was noted, was established in 2003 by Mackenzie, and was registered as a ministry by the Registrar of Societies in 2010, with Mackenzie as Chairperson together with five other officials.

KNHCR said the negligence and failure of the judicial system, which released MacKenzie severally, or failed to expedite hearings against him and the national security and administration structures left Mackenzie’s followers in the full control and mercy of Mackenzie and his militia. Many followers faced a slow excruciating death mainly through starvation.

On January 31, 2024, the CS for Interior and National Coordination, Kithure Kindiki, issued a gazette notice declaring Pastor Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries an organized criminal group under Section 22(1) of the Prevention of Organized Crimes Act.

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