'He was well received': Shakahola residents remember Mackenzie

This comes amid shocking discoveries of bodies of people who starved themselves to death in the area. 

Police officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation homicide unit have exhumed more than 40 bodies from shallow graves in the vast 800-acre Shakahola Forest.

They are all believed to be victims of cultic teachings of starving to death with hope of ‘meeting Jesus’.

The police, working with the government pathologists, Kenya Red Cross officials and the residents, had established more than 58 graves. However, by Sunday, they had only opened up less than 20 graves.

According to the residents who spoke to the Star, Mackenzie arrived at Shakahola in 2019, saying he wanted to settle to do farming. He was well received.

By that time, Mackenzie had just shut down his Good News International Church in the Furunzi area of Malindi town after he declared that his nine-year mission had come to an end.

Shakahola residents say that Mackenzie and his handful of followers were shopping at the nearby trading centre, but as time went by, the number of the new faces (more Mackenzie followers) started trooping to the area.

Since the pastor had settled 15km away from the Shakahola trading, centre, most of his followers had to be ferried on boda bodas after arriving in the village.

Papa Jeff, a resident of Shakahola, said Mackenzie started bringing followers after being welcomed to the area.

“Even us boda boda operators were getting good business carrying them from the village to the trading centre,” he said.

Residents were also mingling with Mackenzie’s followers freely for three years.

They co-existed well with them until early this year when things changed and the followers started blocking boda bodas into the villages. Residents say they became more hostile when they began their 40 days of fasting around March.

The idea was to minimise outsiders from getting into their homes as the pastor had reportedly told them the end times had come and they should fast to death, beginning with children.

One boda boda operator was attacked by people believed to be Mackenzie’s followers who were also acting as his security men.

In that vast forest,riders used to also carry the pastoralists, but they became suspicious when the followers started restricting movement.

Jeff said the residents started protesting being blocked from using the access road within the vast forest, and that is when they noticed people had started dying.

The residents, with the help of Nyumba Kumi and village elders, raided the forest and found people in very bad conditions.

 “That is when we began getting reports of malnourished people who were dying one by one, but the pastor was seen in good health,” he said.

It is believed that Mackenzie bought the land from Mwabaya Mwaro clan, and later more than 600 people began visiting the area.

His followers were allocated spaces to build their structures.

George Karisa, another Shakahola resident, said he used to sell water jerrycans to hundreds of Mackenzie’s followers.

“Suddenly, no one was coming to buy the water jerrycans, that is when we started getting reports that children were dying in the forest,” he said, adding that residents will not allow the pastor back in that village.

According to shop owners and farmers, they used to get good business from Mackenzie’s followers in the last three years they settled in Shakahola.

Then all of a sudden, the followers were nowhere to be seen.

Unknown to them, already there were people dying and being buried in the forest due to cultic beliefs.

In the shallow graves, bodies were wrapped with lesos, with some graves having more bodies believed to be of the same family.

What is not clear and remains a puzzle to the residents is the fact that all that was happening in the glaring eyes of the government officials and security agents at the grassroots.

Human rights activists and Kilifi county leaders have appealed to the government to dispatch choppers and drones so as to help in aerial surveillance in Shakahola.

Adu MCA Samson Zia said there are still so many people in the forest who are fasting.

“We need security officers to comb this forest for any remaining followers of Mackenzie, who are hiding deep in the forest,” Zia said. 

Hussein Khalid, the executive director of Haki Africa, said the situation on the ground requires more machinery, including aerial surveillance. 

He said they have rescued at least 36 people who were hiding in the forest, adding that the number of bodies exhumed could be more. 

 “This is more than the Wagalla massacre, the forest is vast and we need aerial surveillance to rescue those still hiding in the forest,” he said.

The Coast regional police commander and Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit commander visited the scene on Sunday.

The senior security officials did not address the media, but before they left, officers were dispatched into the forest to locate more graves and rescue any followers believed to be hiding.

 

(edited by Amol Awuor)