The Starvation Cult Uncovered In The Backwoods of Kenya
In 2024, over 600 bodies were found buried in shallow graves on a compound in the Shakahola forest. Paul Mackenzie had told his followers if they reduced their food intake, they would meet Jesus. This left many with the question- how did things get this bad?
TW: Child abuse
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SOURCES
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68214749
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65412822
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65423645
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/26/the-cult-in-the-forest
https://apnews.com/article/kenya-cult-deaths-paul-mackenzie-4029d3c201d7f4438969aebc22eff2a7
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/14/world/africa/kenya-christian-cult-deaths.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-65635784
https://www.city-facts.com/malindi-kilifi/population#google_vignette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAvzQ5Ubcpw
TRANSCRIPT
Victor Kaudo walks through the thick, isolated Shakahola forest in Kenya with a group of men Soft brown dirt absorbs the sound of their footstesp, they’re trying to keep a low profile as they duck behind the low trees. Each one of them holds their breath in anticipation, and fear.
Victor is the head of a human rights center in Malindi, Kenya. So, he’s seen his fair share of suffering. But what he’s looking for in the Shakahola forest is worse than anything he’s ever encountered.
See, Several people had visited Victor recently with shocking rumors about a church gone very sideways out here in the wilderness. They said it’s become a cult.
Kaudo took these concerns to the local police. But they claimed they couldn’t do anything without hard evidence.
So now Kaudo is here in the forest himself, with a few other men, not knowing what they’d find, but fearing the worst. Some of the men actually had relatives disappear in recent months, and. Now, they’re filled with a mix of hope and dread that they’ll find them here.
Everyone is moving cautiously, when Victor sees someone in the distance- a guard walking back and forth like he was patrolling a perimeter, a long sharp machete in one hand, caked in dark red stains. To his left, is another guard, and then another, all holding machetes, ready to fight whoever was trying to get in. Or maybe….out
They must be close to the compound, Victor thinks and he keeps slowly picking his way through the brush
Just then, he hears something , its the sound of someone struggling. The group makes their way towards the sound when they see someone, someone very small.
it’s a boy, a young boy, around 10, tied to a tree with a thick rope. He’s using his small arms to try and free himself, but it’s not working. Victor takes another step and snaps a small branch and the boy looks up. At first, his eyes look panicked, but when he realizes Victor isn’t one of the machete wielding guards, he waves his arms frantically, beckoning them closer. he doesn’t speak, though. His eyes dart constantly into the thick undergrowth surrounding them. He’s afraid they’re going to get caught.
The first thing that shocks the men, is the state the boy is in. He’s only wearing a dirty pair of pants. His bare torso is so emaciated, his entire rib cage is visible, and small collar bones poke out by his neck. Two of the men actually break down crying when they see him, not just because they’ve saved the boy, but because they recognize him. He’s their cousin, one that disappeared recently after his mother had them join a new church. They rush to free him.
The boy whispers hysterically. “Hurry, today is my wedding day.’ wedding day? They ask. You’re to be married? But the boy shakes his head frantically, around here “wedding” doesn’t mean marriage, it means something far worse.
“where are your siblings?” one of the men ask
The boy just points to a pile of dirt nearby. Dread washes over Kaudo as he realizes what it is: a fresh grave. He gazes out into the thick stretch of trees all around. Whatever is out there, he’s in way over his head.
Welcome to Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of horrors, hauntings, and mysteries. I’m your host, Kaelyn Moore.
Today’s episode is going to be about one of the most shocking modern cults of our time. I seriously think this one is going to be in the history books, guys, up there with Heaven’s gate and Jonestown, and I’m glad we get to tell you the story, coming from the testimonies of the people who survived, and the one man who helped shut it down.
Before we dive in, I wanted to shout out our listener Eric who is actually a therapist who specializes in leaving high control groups. That is a very darkly curious job but a VERY important one at that, seriously, I love this community.
Alright, let’s dive back in.
Victor quickly realized he was going to need more than just a few men, so they grabbed the boy and ran back to Mallindi. He went straight to the police and told them exactly what the boy had told him- that he was denied food by his parents, who were following the directions of their leader. The boy also told Victor what wedding day meant. It was when their leader selected someone to be murdered.
After some back and forth, the police finally decided Victor brought them enough evidence for a to go inspect Shakahola. Victor came with them, acting as their guide. But This time, the armed group didn't sneak in through the brush. They walked right in from the main road, a two mile stretch of dirt.
Eventually, they came upon a group of mud huts. What they found inside would be etched into Victor’s brain forever: dozens of people crowded together in varying states of starvation. Some people tried to run when they saw the police, but they were too weak to move. Others were too tired from malnutrition to even form complete sentences.
And worse yet, they protested when Victor and the officers tried to help them up. They swatted their hands away, saying they were on a journey to Jesus and they didn’t want to be interrupted. Their leader had told them that if they stayed strong, if they didn’t eat until they wasted away, they would meet the lord. They wanted to be left alone and allowed to die.
But Victor and the officers didn’t listen. He knew that these people had been brain washed, and he worked to evacuate all 34 survivors to a hospital. But four people were so far gone, they didn’t survive the trip.
As investigators continued exploring the property, they realized there were piles of disturbed earth everywhere. Some small, some gigantic. They began to poke around. It wasn’t long before they started seeing body parts.
The property was covered in shallow mass graves. Something truly heinous happened here. The authorities put out requests for more personnel and supplies to begin exhumation and forensic testing.
But one of the officers points out in the distance, what’s that? There, amongst the decaying huts filled with emaciated followers, among the shallow graves, was a house. A Nice house. One with a grass-thatched roof and a solar panel. Compared to the other primitive mud huts nearby, this looked like the height of luxury. The officers made their way over and knock on the door (SFX Knocking), but no one answers so they just let themselves inside. And it’s even more of a stark contrast to the horrors on the compound.
the solar panel ran a refrigerator full to the brim with fresh bread, milk, sustenance. Clearly, not everyone on the property was suffering.
Eventually, investigators learned that this was the home of the leader. The man responsible for the over 200 bodies that were buried in shallow graves outside. Paul Mackenzie.
Paul Mackenzie was always in touch with his spirituality. He grew up in an evangelical Christian Kenyan household, and loved attending church as a child. Church provided him an opportunity to be the center of attention to get up on stage and flex his charisma in front of a big crowd: It started with him singing in the choir, and eventually he’d deliver guest sermons.
But he wasn’t an angel.
Mackenzie’s brothers remember his short temper, and how it could result in unpredictable violence. He’d get up on stage and preach about the undying love of the creator, but When Mackenzie got angry, he’d lash out and use violence on whoever was closest.
When he grew up, Mackenzie sold goods on the street and drove a taxi, but his dream was to be an evangelical preacher.
See, Evangelicalism in Kenya functions differently than in some other countries. In Kenya, Evangelical is just a term that refers to a church that’s centered around the “Personal Enterprise of the pastor” according to Wandia Njoya a scholar based in Nairobi. She’s written a lot about religion in Kenya, and she goes on to say that in Kenya, evangelical pastors tend to have unchecked power and alpha male values.
Evangelical Christianity in Kenya is somewhat modeled after American televangelists. So think preaching styles that lean into showmanship, with animated, physical sermonizing, and an emphasis on dramatic spiritual demonstrations, like exorcisms.
And it was this blend of unlimited power and flamboyant showmanship That really interested Mackenzie. That’s why he wanted to become a pastor. And in his late 20’s when he started preaching on the side at a local church, he started to gain his own little following. In 2003, at age 30, Mackenzie founded his own church: Good News International Ministries.
The church started in the home of one of his supporters. But it’s not long before that supporter accuses him of pocketing donations to the church for his own use.
And Mackenzie’s response? Well, he won’t tolerate anything but complete submission so he told his followers that the supporter who accused him is a witch, he moved out, and built himself a large church. Now he was the sole authority. With Good News International in its new home, everything got bigger: the size of Mackenzie’s following, the grandiosity of his preaching,
Mackenzie was really proving himself as a preacher, and as a result people started flocking to his church. But it wasn’t just his charisma that won them over, He also proved himself by performing miracles. If you were to attend one of his sermons at this time, you’d find him exorcizing demons out of afflicted followers, you’d see him lay his hands on men who couldn’t walk only to see them rise up on their two legs, you’d see him stop a seizure in it’s tracks. It was these healing miracles that really catapulted him to stardom.
Ambience- tense, eerie
Halua Yaa, a 50 year old local entrepreneur in Malindi, heard about Mackenzie’s ability to heal the sick. She had an eight-year-old granddaughter who had a mysterious illness that prevented her from properly digesting food. Yaa had taken her to all kinds of doctors and hospitals over two years, but nothing seemed to help. The poor girl could hardly eat. Yaa was desperate for a cure, anything that could help her grandaughter, so she decided to attend a healing crusade that Good News International was hosting.
A crusade is a big religious festival that can go on for several days. And Yaa walked in to see a big stage where Mackenzie was preaching to a massive crowd through a microphone. There was so much electricity in the room as people watched, and Yaa could tell that others brought their sick loved ones to be healed as well.
Up onstage, a young girl joined the preacher, then began to shake violently, her eyes rolled back into her head, she was having a seizure. The crowd got really quiet as Mackenzie leaned over her, looked up to the ceiling and pleaded for God’s mercy. He put his hands on her head and shouted for God to be merciful. and convulsions suddenly stopped. The girl came to and looked out at the crowd, confused as to what happened but not suffering anymore.
And Yaa was watching this in the crowd in total disbelief. She felt she’d just witnessed a miracle. She didn’t know who Mackenzie was yet, but she was sure taht he could help her granddaughter. After that moment, she was a devout follower of Paul’s.
Most of Mackenzie’s followers had a story like Yaa’s: maybe they weren’t sold on Mackenzies preaching style, but when they watched him heal the sick, when he held an old womans hand and the pain in her joints stopped, they were all in.
A few people, however were drawn to Mackenzie for a different reason.
So a man named Lucky Chanzera joined Good News International around the same time Yaa did. The church paid him for odd jobs, and he got a kickback for recruiting new members. But he saw through Mackenzie’s so-called miracles. One day he caught Mackenzie pulling a follower aside and they discussed what the healing would look like, how hard the person should shake while they faked a seizure. The whole thing was staged.
But that didn’t really bother Lucky. The church was a business, afterall, and healings were what drove in more members, which meant more tithes, which meant more money for Mackenzie, and hopefully more money for Lucky. If people felt inspired and comforted, there was no harm in a little theater – right?
Well this, my dear listeners, is where things can get really dangerous. Because his followers thought he had a gift directly from God, they were more likely to believe whatever he told them. And Mackenzie really seized this opportunity to gain more control, and this is when his preaching starts to get really dark.
Mackenzie claimed to receive orders directly from God about how his followers should live. And God, he said, wanted them to disconnect from modern institutions. Mackenzie forbade his followers from engaging with entertainment like television, sports and music. He warned them not to engage with modern medicine, including vaccines. He said that doctors serve a different god than them and cannot be trusted.
He said that governments, both in Kenya and abroad, were conspiring against the common man, and must never be trusted. He insisted that schools exist only to brainwash children and pull money from hardworking people into government coffers.
He was making everyone effectively cut themselves off from society, especially any form of authority. There would be no teachers, no government, no doctors that could tell his followers what to do, just him.
Mackenzie said all these things were “wicked influences” and their presence indicated the apocalypse was coming. And it’s never good when the person who is telling you to isolate yourself from the real world is also telling you that the world is going to end soon. Throughout history, that has never worked out great.
But According to him, it was only a matter of time before all humanity’s sins caught up with them and they’d suffer through the end of days. There was a way to avoid this, of course. All they had to do was follow Mackenzie’s path of righteousness and never ever question it. As long as they stopped watching television, avoided registering with the government, stayed away from doctors, and kept their children out of school, they would be saved. The miracles would continue. They’d be healed of all pain and suffering and the lord would speak through Mackenzie. And so his followers agreed to do just that.
By 2018, membership at Good News International was in the hundreds, and the church’s popularity was growing in Malindi. Members included everyone from working class folks to higher-end professionals like flight attendants and even government employees.
But the end of 2019, Mackenzie abruptly closed his church in Malindi. It’s not clear exactly why – according to some sources, it had to do with Mackenzie’s clashes with local law enforcement. Mackenzie had gotten in trouble over an unlicensed TV station broadcasting his sermons, and for running an unsanctioned school out of the church. Followers were shocked to learn the church was closing – Mackenzie seemed to be at the height of his success. But he knew that he wanted to take the church to the next level. And he had an idea of how to do that.
So he began spending time in Shakahola, that isolated forest outside Malindi where we opened the episode.
There, he bought 800 acres of farm land, and invited his followers to join him on the property, offering to sell them parcels of land at heavily discounted rates. He compared Shakahola to their own Holy Land, saying that the isolated community was the best way to insulate themselves from the toxic forces of the outside world and survive the incoming apocalypse.
It’s hard to convey just how strongly his church members believed that the apocalypse was coming and Mackenzie was the only one who could save them, but Hundreds of followers left their careers and homes, sold everything they owned and donated the proceeds to the church so they could move to Shakahola.
For Yaa, it was about helping her family. When Mackenzie sold the church, she was devastated. Her granddaughter was still sickly, what were they going to do now? Yaa had been brainwashed to think doctors were evil bringers of the apocalypse
being in close proximity to Mackenzie and his miraculous healing powers felt like the only way her granddaughter could get better. Yaa sold her family’s goat for about fifty American dollars – a significant sum for her family – and moved with her granddaughter to a plot of land out in the isolated forest. Yaa had high hopes – this was supposed to be the promised land.
But when she got to the compound, it did not look like the promised land at all. Mackenzie divided the land into different villages with Biblical names: Judea, Bethlehem, Jericho and Nazareth – but they all look the same. It’s just Rough mud huts with thatched or tarp roofs, closely grouped together. Yaa thought she was buying her own land for her family to live on, she wasn’t imagining this kind of communal living, with zero privacy and hardly a roof over her head.
But they just had to wait and see the whole vision come together, he said. This would one day be heavenly, and they would build it together. He would heal them. God would guide them and tell them what to do. They just needed to Pray, he said. And so, they did. Alone in the hot forest, with not much else to do, they all prayed. A lot. For a sign, for their community, for humanity, for the coming apocalypse.
And then, one day, Mackenzie comes to them and tells them that God has given him a direct order for all of them to follow. Something he says will bring them closer to god.
His followers gathered around to hear what he had to say, eagerly awaiting the message they had all been praying for. All we have to do, he said, is limit our food intake.
Yaa was standing towards the back of the group, so maybe Mackenzie didn’t see the look of disbelief on her face. This seemed off, Yaa didn’t remember anything in the Bible about Jesus requiring followers to fast. That was always optional.
But Mackenzie was strong in his conviction, so She tried her best to follow the rules. And it was really hard, She had a young kid to worry about, and remember, Yaa brought her granddaughter to Shakahola to fix her digestion! Fasting seemed totally counterintuitive. But… what if that was the solution and Mackenzie was right? Yaa found herself in a weird limbo, where she vacillated between wanting to follow Mackenzie’s directives, and her instinct to keep her granddaughter fed.
When the fasting became too much, Yaa snuck into the nearby village to purchase food. But of course, she didn’t want anyone else to see her disobeying Mackenzie. So she’d rush through building a fire and cooking, trying to do it all out of sight. As soon as the food was ready, Yaa immediately doused the fire, and she and her granddaughter would devour the meal quickly, in secret.
In spite of everything, the combination of intense prayer and sporadic fasting actually seemed to help Yaa’s granddaughter. She was able to eat without vomiting, and finally began gaining weight. Of course, this was probably because of a combination of factors, but for Yaa, this was a miracle. She was filled with gratitude and faith in god – and in Mackenzie. He was right, the fasting was working, it was bringing them closer to god, it was healing them. Some followers were still having trouble seeing the purpose, but Any doubts Yaa had about what they were doing out in the forest were now gone.
Yaa actually took her granddaughter, out of Shakahola so that Yaa could return to her business in Malindi, but they commuted back all the time for Mass.
And then, in early 2020, the pandemic hit. After years of preaching about the end of the world, sometimes even saying it would be brought on by a virus, Mackenzie prophecy appeared to be fulfilling itself. If any followers had questions about their leaders connection to God, his ability to heal, his predictions for the apocalypse, those were now gone.
The coinciding of these events strengthened his grip on his followers, and it even brought new followers to the compound, people who wanted to isolate themselves to stay protected from the virus, Shakahola seemed like a great place to do it, with a godly leader who would lead them to salvation.
Because Yaa no longer had her hut in Shakahola, she and her grandaughter had to spend most of lockdown outside of the compound, but she eagerly awaited the time when she could go back.
And so in 2022, Yaa returned to Shakahola with two friends. They’d all been experiencing health troubles, and Yaa was so excited to show them Mackenzie’s healing sessions.
But when she arrived, she could not believe what she saw. When she originally left Shakahola at the end of 2019, it was a small community of people who fasted and prayed all day, who would sometimes listen to Mackenzie preach, and who could commute in and out for mass, like she did when she moved back to Malindi.
But this was not that. No, Guards armed with knives, machetes and hammers prowled along the perimeter of the property. These were mostly men with leadership roles in the church, including Lucky Chanzera, the man who noticed Mackenzie was staging his healings. Lucky and his family got to live on the property while Mackenzie paid a good wage, and provided food for them, even while the other followers couldn't eat.
Yaa noticed how different the entire vibe of the place was. Even though there were many more people living on the property now, it was even more quiet. Yaa thought they also looked unhealthy, even emaciated. This was beyond fasting, this was full on starvation.
The first few days Yaa was there, she and her friends received one small ration per day, but then they stopped getting food and water at all.
When Yaa listened to Mackenzie’s preaching, it had a new, more urgent and frenzied tenor. Instead of making her feel inspired and calm, it was terrifying. He’d carry on for hours, ranting and raving about the end of the world, but he also had a terrible ultimatum: he claimed that the end of the world was only a few short months away, and that he received a new edict from God about the path Good News International followers had to follow to meet Jesus. There was only one way there: starve to death.
Mackenzie went on to lay out a horrifying death flowchart: children would be the first to ‘go to sleep.’ Parents were encouraged to actively participate in denying them food. Some parents protested, but Mackenzie brushed off their concerns, saying, “Let them die. Is there any problem? It’s Jesus who gave you those children.”
After the children, Mackenzie wanted the single adults to starve to death next, then mothers, then the elderly, married adults and then church leadership before finally Mackenzie himself.
Yaa and her friends were petrified. This was the final straw, they needed to leave, but when they went to the exit, the guards stuck out their machetes in front of them. No one was leaving the compound unless it was in a body bag.
Over the next few days and weeks, they watched as the people commuting into the compound for mass were met with the same fate, when mass was over and they tried to leave, the guards threatened them. Everyone on the compound was trapped
Yaa didn’t know what to do, she wanted to leave and go see her granddaughter. She starts watching the guards and she notices that there’s time when they take breaks. Whenever they break, she would sneak into the forest to forage for wild fruit and slurp water from puddles on the ground. Anything for sustenance. She knew if she made a run for it she could die in the forest, so she tried to keep as low of a profile as possible. Getting caught eating or trying to escape meant severe punishment, like being tied up outside the huts, beaten, or even killed.
Life in Shakahola became a nonstop horror show. The suffering from days upon days of hunger was unbearable. Yaa and her friends listened to the other followers cry out in pain and despair day and night.
Mackenzie didn’t think death was coming fast enough for his followers, he didn’t realize starving takes weeks, and his followers were stealing berries from the forest when they could, which was making it so they didn’t die. So Mackenzie decided he would help speed up the process.
He singled out certain believers for their ‘wedding days.’ This just meant that a guard would strangle the chosen one to death.. Then, Mackenzie expected other followers to rejoice. According to him, that believer had gone to meet Jesus. So everyone should be happy. Yaa had to stand there and throw her hands in the air in fake praise of what was happening. But in reality, she and most of the other followers were repulsed and terrified by the violence.
Yaa just kept reminding herself though, keep a low profile, we’ll figure something out. That all changed one day though, when her friend approached her.
She had been violently attacked by one of the guards. She hadn’t even done anything wrong, the guards were just on a power trip, brutalizing people whenever they wanted.
This was Yaa's breaking point, she had to get herself and her friends to safety or else they were going to die here. So, the three women began making concrete plans to escape. They were already tracking the guards’ movements in order to sneak into the forest for food. Now, they were watching for the right time to make a break for it. It didn’t matter that there were big cats in the forest. That they were so weak they wondered how far they could run before collapsing. This was going to be their only chance.
One day, they watched as one of the young male guards walked the perimeter. It was almost time for his break. Yaa watched him like hawk, she started balling her fists and planting her feet, readying her stance, when all of a sudden he looked directly at her. The two made eye contact, and Yaa stayed still, like a rabbit hoping to not be seen. Apparently, he decided she wasn’t a threat, because he walked, back down a path towards Mackenzie’s house. When he was finally out of sight, yaa and her friends slipped into the forest like they often did. But this time, once they were out of earshot from the settlement, they broke into a run.
They moved through the thickest part of the forest, where they thought it would be easiest to hide. It was only a matter of time before someone realized they were gone and came looking for them, what if that guard told the others it looked like Yaa was going to make a break for it.
For four days, they wandered through the forest, staying out of sight during the day, and walking at night. It was a tense journey. Yaa was constantly looking over her shouler, half expecting to see the young guard charging towards her. And if he didn’t get her, a big cat surly would. Yaa hugged her arms to her chest, she could feel every bone in her wrist, she knew she would be easy prey for a lion or leopard.
The journey was long, and they survived just on berries they could forrage and water in puddles, but one day, Yaa saw a road. they flagged down a good Samaritan, who drove them into the next village. The women wept when they were offered food and clean water for the first time in weeks.
One of the first places Yaa went when she was back, was the office of Victor Kaudo, the head of a human rights center in Malindi
She told him everything, the starvation, the murderes, how her friend had been brutally assaulted. There was a little voice in the back of her head that told her Mackenzie could find out she snitched, he could send his men after her to kill her, but she pushed through and relayed her experience
Victor had alreayd heard rumors of this place, so he decided to go visit for himself, and that’s when he and his men found the boy tied to the tree.
And actually, after the police searched the compound and found Pauls hut full of food, they arrested both him and the boys parents for neglecting him.
For a brief moment, it seemed like everything was going to be okay. Mackenzie was in custody, this should all be over?
Well the police claimed they didn't have enough evidence to hold Mackenzie. They released him back into the forest. And things were about to get a whole lot worse for his followers
When Mackenzie returned, he accelerated his vision for mass death. He told his followers that the end of the world was coming sooner than expected – in just a few weeks. If the remaining followers wanted to meet Jesus, they needed to die before that date.
Mackenzie told the guards they needed to up the amount of wedding that were being done. But that they, too now needed to plan for their deaths and the deaths of their families. Mackenzie still pledged to go last, in order to “close the door.”
This new pronouncement brought about two very different reactions. For the believers, hastening their deaths was a relief – they believed they’d be seeing Jesus even sooner than expected. But for anyone hoping to hang onto their mortal life, it was the end of the line. If they wanted to survive, it was time to do something.
That was the case for Lucky Chanzera, one of the guards. So far, he and his family hadn’t been at risk. They were well fed at the compound, and had a place to live
But things were different now. One of Mackenzie’s deputies instructed Lucky to select one of his own children for “sacrifice.”
Then the guards went around and told the followers it was now forbidden that they even talk to each other.
For the followers still living in the mud hut settlements, the situation was even more desperate. Neema, a mother of three, had been kept on the property against her will for weeks. She was pregnant with her fourth child, but she knew there was no way a newborn would survive here, with no doctors around and no access to food. She didn’t even know if she’d be able to make enough breast milk to feed the baby because she had gone so long without food. But She was determined to protect her unborn child, and get back to the kids she left behind.
Like Yaa, Neema made escape plans with other women she trusted. It was tricky –. The women had to plan in whispers, always checking for guards or true believers who might rat them out for speaking to each other.. Eventually, they dug a hole through the back wall of their mud hut, slid through it, and fled, filthy and emaciated, into the forest.
Neema described the trek back to civilization as harrowing. All the women were so weakened by hunger, they ran on pure adrenaline until they reached the road that Yaa had come to.
Back in Malindi, Victor and others pressured police to raid Good News International. If they didn’t have enough evidence to hold Mackenzie last time, they need to enter the property and find some, fast, things were about to get way worse.
But months went by before they could get through to anyone, the police just didn’t seem interested enough in what was going on. Even though more and more family members of the followers were coming forward, begging the police to do something to save their loved ones.
Finally, law enforcement caved and decided to go back to Shakahola, and Victor went with them
As officers overran the settlement, they saw a scene even worse than what they came upon months before. There were more freshly dug graves, rows and rows of them spreading out into the forest. Followers were sprawled out around them, waiting for their time to be buried. the followers that were still alive could hardly move or talk, they were so malnourished. Children cried out in hunger, but mothers had nothing to give them.
And there, at the center of it all, was Mackenzie looking as well fed as ever. He didn’t even put up a fight, he and a few of his closest allies surrendered themselves into custody, they knew this was the end of the line for them.
Officers started taking survivors out of the forest and back to Malindi, where A mob had begun vandalizing the old location of Good News International. Word was beginning to spread that most of the missing loved ones were dead.
Relatives, desperate for information about their missing family members, overwhelmed the coroner’s office in Malindi. As news of the tragedy goes national, all of Kenya experienced waves of shock and grief. One Kenyan government official compared the tragedy in Shakahola to 9/11.
Autopsies on the remains recovered found various causes of death, including malnutrition, blunt force trauma, strangulation and suffocation. Also, in a shocking revelation, One insider estimated that about half the bodies in custody were missing organs, and speculated that they may have been harvested for sale. No officials were willing to discuss this detail on the record.
As of August of 2024, authorities have exhumed 450 bodies from the site, and more remain in the ground. According to the Kenyan Red Cross, at least 600 people have been reported missing with ties to Good News International.
Paul Mackenzie and his accomplices – the authorities eventually rounded up 94 of them – maintain that they’re not responsible for any of the deaths. Mackenzie denied withholding food, or keeping anyone in Shakahola against their will. He also rejected any claims that he or his guards committed murder. If anyone died at Shakahola, he said, “Jesus did it himself. Nobody killed anybody. I did nothing.”
Paul Mackenzie and his 94 accomplices remain in custody on charges of murder, acts of terror, child cruelty and torture related to the deaths of the people whose remains were discovered in Shakahola. During trial, prosecutors plan to show that Mackenzie was not running a fringe religion, but an organized criminal operation.
Mackenzie and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty, and the trial appears to be ongoing.
The public outcry for justice following this tragedy has been loud, and sustained.
Devastated relatives blamed the government and local authorities for taking so long to act, especially when Mackenzie had a history of illegal activity. As best we can tell, law enforcement received reports about Shakahola in late 2022. Mackenzie was not arrested until April 2023.
Reports by the Kenyan Senate and human rights groups confirmed that if local authorities had responded to the earlier reports, they could have prevented many of the deaths. It seemed like most of the deaths occurred after the police investigated the compound the first time.
As of September 2024, six detectives have been suspended for ignoring multiple warnings about Mackenzie’s illegal activities.
Halua Yaa has returned to her home in Malindi. The two women who escaped Shakahola with her live on the property, at Yaa’s insistence. She feels responsible for these women after leading them to danger in the forest. They all still have nightmares about their time there. Occasionally, they sleep in the same bed for comfort.
Lucky and his family were able to escape as well. He told his superiors that his family needed to leave temporarily to attend a wedding. Instead, they packed up all their belongings and fled.
Yaa says her relationship with God remains an important part of her life. But she no longer seeks out any religious authorities to pray over her. “I know my God,” she says.
I find myself really inspired by Victor and Yaa in this story. Yaa knew something was wrong, and she trusted her gut. She left even though it was scary and she didn’t know what would happen.
And Victor kept pushing, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. And because of that, there were at least some survivors in this story, who knows what would have happened if the police never went back.
So remember to be like Victor and Yaa, and to trust your instincts always, and I’ll meet you here next week where we’re going to take another trip around the world. This time, to Australia, to check out some of the most haunted prisons on the planet. It’s going to get very spooky so you’re not going to want to miss it.
And until next time, stay curious. OOOoooooOOO