Fresh fears of cult activity emerge in Kilifi, nearly two years after Shakahola Massacre

Emily Chebet

Digital Citizen 

July 20, 2025

Fresh fears of cult activity emerge in Kilifi, nearly two years after Shakahola Massacre

Nearly two years after the gruesome discovery of mass graves in Shakahola Forest shocked the nation and the world, chilling new developments out of Kilifi County are stoking fears that the horrors of 2023 may not be behind us.

Authorities have recovered one body and rescued four severely emaciated individuals just kilometres from the original Shakahola site—raising alarming questions about the possible resurgence of cult-like activity in the region.

Even more disturbing is the revelation that among those arrested is a husband and wife, former victims of the Shakahola cult, who had previously been rescued during the 2023 operation but disappeared again earlier this year.

The couple, originally from Nyadorera in Siaya County, allegedly fled their home in March with six children—aged between 1 and 15 years—before resurfacing in Kilifi under circumstances now under active investigation.

A brother of the male suspect, whose identity has been concealed for safety, confirmed that the family had once been reintegrated into the community but mysteriously vanished months ago.

“Alitoka huko nyumbani na familia yake wakaenda Shakahola mara ya kwanza… wakati watu walikuwa wanatolewa, tuliweza kuwaokoa wakaenda nyumbani,” he said. “Tulijua atareform akiwa nyumbani… lakini amerudi tena.”

The whereabouts of the six children remain unknown. “Nimewaishi na hao watoto,” the brother added. “Nimefuata kujua wako hali gani lakini sijawaona. Sasa nimeachia serikali ifanye uchunguzi.”

Human rights advocates and local authorities fear the emergence of what they are calling a possible “Shakahola Two.” Rapid Response Officer Mathias Shipeta expressed grave concern, saying one of the couple’s children had been among those held during the initial Shakahola raid and placed in a rescue facility. “As we speak, we are concerned that Shakahola 2 inaweza kuwa imeanza,” Shipeta warned. “We are calling upon the police to investigate the matter and ensure we do not have casualties or deaths as in Shakahola 1.”

Ongoing investigations suggest that remnants of the original Shakahola network may still be active, quietly regrouping and continuing indoctrination efforts despite government crackdowns and nationwide condemnation.

“We have been told that some of those previously charged and detained at Shimo la Tewa are regrouping and conducting teachings to continue radicalizing Kenyans,” Shipeta said.

The victim’s brother echoed the growing alarm: “Naomba serikali hii mambo ya Shakahola ikapate kuisha kabisa… isiendelee tena. Inaonekana bado watu wanaendelea kuregroup huko msituni.”

The original Shakahola tragedy, believed to have been orchestrated by controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie, claimed over 400 lives and triggered widespread calls for reform of religious and cult-related laws in Kenya.

https://www.citizen.digital/news/fresh-fears-of-cult-activity-emerge-in-kilifi-nearly-two-years-after-shakahola-massacre-n366650

Kenyan Pastor Accused Of Multiple Sexual Abuses

Agence France Presse

September 3, 2024

A Kenyan pastor is being investigated for cult activities after allegations he and other church elders sexually abused a number of women and girls, police said.

The case came to light after the church run by Daniel Mururu in Meru county in central Kenya was torched by irate locals late last month.

Mururu, of the East African Pentecostal Churches of Kenya, as well as church elders and ushers, are accused of indecent assaults including stripping women naked, shaving their pubic hair and having sexual intercourse with them, according to a police report dated Monday.

More than seven women and girls ranging in age from 17 to 70 are alleged to have been assaulted, including a 17-year-old schoolgirl who became pregnant, the report said.

Police said their initial investigations had established that Mururu was "running a cult" that had radicalised its followers.

The church members were induced to engage "in indecent acts" for fear of consequences such as "sickness and barrenness" if they defied the pastor's orders, the police report said.

A devout largely Christian nation, Kenya has struggled to regulate unscrupulous churches and cults that dabble in criminality.

In a macabre case that shocked the world, the leader of a Kenyan doomsday starvation cult was arrested in April last year after bodies were found buried in mass graves.

Rescuers spent many months searching a remote scrubland inland from the Indian Ocean town of Malindi and have now unearthed a total of 448 bodies from the shallow graves.

Autopsies revealed that the majority of victims had died of hunger. But others, including children, appeared to have been strangled, beaten or suffocated.

The horrific saga dubbed the "Shakahola forest massacre" led the government to flag the need for tighter control of fringe denominations.

A commission set up by President William Ruto to investigate the deaths and review regulations governing religious bodies presented its report in July, calling for a hybrid model of self-regulation and government oversight.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/kenyan-pastor-accused-of-multiple-sexual-abuses-4dd1afb0

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/18/2024 (Questions and Answers, Legal, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, Kenya, Gateway Church, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Satanic Temple)

Questions and Answers, Legal, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, Kenya, Gateway Church, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Satanic Temple

WIRED: Former Cult Member Answers Cult Questions From Twitter

"Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist who used to be in a cult, answers the internet's burning questions about cults. How did Charles Manson get a cult following? What's the best movie about cults? Why did everyone in the Heaven's Gate cult wear Nikes? How do people get brainwashed?"

Agence France-Presse in Mombasa: Kenyan cult leader goes on trial on terrorism charges over 400 deaths

"The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult has gone on trial on charges of terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers in a macabre case that shocked the world.

The self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie appeared in court in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa along with 94 co-defendants.

Journalists were removed from the courtroom shortly after the start of the hearing to enable a protected witness to take the stand.

Mackenzie, who was arrested in April last year, is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to "meet Jesus".

He and his co-accused all pleaded not guilty to the charges of terrorism at a hearing in January.

They also face charges of murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, and child torture and cruelty in separate cases.

The remains of more than 440 people have been unearthed so far in a remote wilderness inland from the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi, in a case that has been dubbed the "Shakahola forest massacre".

Autopsies have found that while starvation appeared to be the main cause of death, some of the victims – including children – were strangled, beaten or suffocated.

Previous court documents also said that some of the bodies had had their organs removed."

The Roys Report: Gateway Church Settled Lawsuit Claiming Multiple Pastors Covered Up Sexual Assault of a Minor

"Dallas megachurch Gateway Church recently settled a lawsuit that accused several church leaders of concealing the sexual assault of a girl who attended the church.

The suit was settled in April, just months before Gateway Church founder Robert Morris resigned over the bombshell allegations that he sexually abused Cindy Clemishire when she was 12 years old in 1982.

The initial lawsuit, filed in Tarrant County Texas in 2020, claims that five pastors and a youth leader were aware that a member of the church assaulted the girl in 2018, when she would have been less than 12 years old. She was not yet 18 when the suit was settled this spring.

However, the leaders concealed this from the victim's mother and failed to report it to local authorities, according to the lawsuit.

The church leaders "collectively and independently engaged in a concerted effort to conceal the sexual assault accusations" to "subvert the accusations and avoid criminal investigation," according to the lawsuit."

Bang Premiere: Dan Reynolds gave up Mormonism as he thinks religion was 'harmful'

"The Imagine Dragons rocker, 36, was raised in what he says was a "really conservative" Mormon household and served a two-year Mormon mission in Omaha, Nebraska – but it has been several years since he quit his worship and he's now spoken out to slam aspects of the church.

He told People: "There's obviously parts of the Mormon religion that I feel pretty strongly are harmful, especially to our gay youth.

"At times I feel pretty isolated from my family, but I also love them and am close to them and see them, and there's no animosity there.

"I'm on a different path. I have to love myself enough to follow my truth."

Dan founded the LOVELOUD Foundation in 2018 in support of the young LGBTQ+ community and added he has "always struggled" with religion.

He added he spent his 20s and early 30s "really angry" at religion, as he felt he'd been "duped" by the Mormon church.

Dan said: "I saw a lot of the harm that came from it for me personally, but it also seemed to work incredibly well for my family, and they're all healthy, happy individuals.

"As I've gotten older, I'm not angry about it anymore. If something works for someone, that's really wonderful and rare, and I don't want to mess with it."

Dan has chosen not to raise the four children he has with his ex-wife Aja Volkman – daughters Arrow, 11, Gia and Coco, 7, and son Valentine, four – in the church, as he does not want to play with how their minds work.

He said: "My greatest goal every day is to not manipulate my kids. I really don't want to try to tell them what their spiritual path should be."

The Guardian: Satanists to volunteer in Florida schools in protest at DeSantis religious bill

Satanic Temple objects to the governor's push for more religion in schools and says members could act as student chaplains.

" ... Members of the Satanic Temple say they are poised to act as volunteer chaplains under a state law that took effect this week opening campuses to "additional counseling and support to students" from outside organizations.

Although HB 931 leaves the implementation of chaplain programs to individual school districts, and only requires schools to list a volunteer's religion "if any", DeSantis has made clear its intent is to restore the tenets of Christianity to public education.

Without the bill, DeSantis said at its signing in April: "You're basically saying that God has no place [on campus]. That's wrong."

The satanists see the law, which comes amid a vigorous theocratic drive into education by the religious right nationally, as an equal opportunity: if Christian chaplains are permitted access to students, often at the most vulnerable and impressionable stages of their lives, then so are they.

There are, however, no plans to introduce studies of the dark arts or satanic rituals to any classroom. The Satanic Temple champions Satan not as a literal, omnipresent demon, but as a symbol of rebellion and resistance to authoritarianism. It says its strategy here is to highlight flagrant violations of the constitutionally protected separation of church and state."

Mamamia: At 11, Joe Dageforde escaped from a notorious cult. The reason why is horrifying.

"Joe Dageforde's Canadian father was living in Australia, busking on the streets, when he met Joe's mum.

He invited her to a barbecue, run by his church group called, The Children of God. At the time, they were feeling disenchanted with the world and were desperately seeking a sense of belonging. They found it within the church.

That barbecue set the tone for Joe's life, and the life of his siblings, all of whom were born as active members of the church."

" ... The family was constantly moving, but always within the confines of the church, a global operation that still exists to this day.

"We lived in a caravan for a couple of years, communes, even in a tent for a while."

By the time he was 12, Joe had lived in 52 different locations. Each location had one thing in common though. They were cut off from the outside world."

" ... While the church painted a picture of devotion to God and each other, the reality was a sinister world dominated by physical and sexual abuse.

Joe says physical abuse was constant, with beatings and other punishments able to be administered by any adult who lived within the home.

"You could be punished for things as slight as running down the stairs, laughing too loud, being foolish, playing too energetically, not doing what you were asked to do immediately or to the standard deemed fit.

"If something happened and one of the kids wouldn't fess up, we could all be lined up and hit with fly swats, wooden spoons, paddles, bamboo, belts, anything. Sometimes the welts and marks left from spankings had to be covered up with longer clothing, even in summer, when we went out busking and fundraising. We lived in fear and constantly tread on eggshells."

Then, there was the sexual abuse, perpetrated under the guise of 'showing love' as instructed by God. "

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Kenyan suspect in religious cult deaths dies in custody after hunger strike

Reuters

June 21, 2023

A Kenyan accused of involvement in the deaths of hundreds of members of a starvation cult has died after a 10-day hunger strike in police custody, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Joseph Buyuka was among 30 people, including self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church, in custody over the deaths of 337 followers of the church.

"The police believe that these individuals... played significant roles in the offences leading to the deaths and illegal disposal of bodies in Shakahola (forest)," court papers said of Buyuka and four others arrested with him.

Authorities have exhumed most of the bodies from the forest in southeast Kenya since April.

Jami Yamina, senior prosecution counsel, said Buyuka had died two days ago at a hospital in Malindi, about 116 km (72 miles) from the port city of Mombasa where he had been taken from a nearby prison.

"He died ...(due to) ... complications from hunger strike and starvation, but we will await postmortem report," Yamina told a court in Mombasa.

"Two other suspects ... have also been taken ill. Police believe it is related to their hunger strike."

Mackenzie is accused of ordering his followers to starve their children and themselves to death so they could reach heaven before the end of the world.

He handed himself over to police in April and was denied bail last month. The other suspects were arrested later after authorities started the exhumations.

He and the others have not yet been required to enter a plea.

Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki had expressed concern in May that some of Mackenzie's rescued followers were refusing food. One of them had died, he said at the time.

(Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Bhargav Acharya and Andrew Cawthorne)

https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/movies/kenyan-suspect-religious-cult-deaths-124836117.html

Kenya beings handing over 429 bodies of doomsday cult victims to families: "They are only skeletons"

CBS/AP

March 26, 2024

The Kenyan government on Tuesday began handing over 429 bodies of members of a doomsday cult at the center of a legal case that has shocked the country.

Exhumed bodies from a vast rural area in coastal Kenya have shown signs of starvation and strangulation. Cult leader Paul Mackenzie is accused of asking his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus and now faces charges that include murder.

One tearful family received four bodies that were loaded into a hearse from a morgue in the Indian Ocean town of Malindi, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

They are the first bodies to be handed over to their relatives for burial after months of painstaking work to identify them using DNA.

"It is a relief that we finally have the bodies but it is also disheartening that they are only skeletons," William Ponda, 32, told AFP, saying he has lost his mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew in the tragedy.

"I do not have any hope that we will find the other members of the family."

Authorities are using DNA testing to help identify bodies and their families. On Tuesday, the first bodies were handed over to relatives. Emotions ran high at the Malindi mortuary as families collected loved ones for reburial. Some wailed, overwhelmed.

Mackenzie and dozens of his associates were charged in February with the torture and murder of 191 children. The trial begins April 23. Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki has declared Mackenzie's Good News International Ministries a criminal organized group.

Mackenzie is serving a separate one-year prison sentence after being found guilty of operating a film studio and producing films without a valid license.

Some outraged Kenyans have asked how authorities didn't notice any sign of the mass deaths underway.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission last week said police failed to act on reports that could have prevented the deaths in the remote Shakahola area. Several reports had been filed at police stations by people whose relatives had entered the forested area.

The case emerged last year when police rescued 15 emaciated parishioners from Mackenzie's church in Kilifi county in Kenya's southeast. Four died after the group was taken to a hospital.

Last year, Kenyan President William Ruto compared the starvation deaths to terrorist acts.

"What we are seeing ... is akin to terrorism," Ruto said. "Mr. Makenzi ... pretends and postures as a pastor when in fact he is a terrible criminal."

The case has prompted calls for tighter control of fringe denominations in a country with a troubling history of self-declared pastors and cults that have dabbled in criminality.

In 2022, the body of a British woman who died at the house of a different cult leader while on holiday in Kenya was exhumed, the family's lawyer said. Luftunisa Kwandwalla, 44, was visiting the coastal city of Mombasa when she died in August 2020, and was buried a day later, but her family has claimed foul play.

AFP contributed to this report.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kenya-429-bodies-doomsday-cult-victims-families/