Eerie journey to the horror graves of Shakahola forest

From the Malindi Tourist resort, one-hour drive west through a winding tarmac past the shopping centres of Ganda, Kakuyuni, Jilore, Kakoneni, Langobaya and Bao Lala leads to Shakahola.

This is the area that has for the past couple of weeks been at the centre of world’s attention following discovery of mass graves of members of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie’s Good News International Church.

This is the path that an unknown number of followers of Mackenzie’s doctrines followed in their quest “to meet Jesus” and ended in mass graves.

The followers, many of them who travelled from upcountry, are believed to have used public means to Malindi from where they boarded matatus and other vehicles, a journey which costs between Sh300 and Sh400.

They were then either picked by fellow cult members or boarded boda bodas to a specific  dropping point within Shakahola stretch.

From the tarmac road that extends further westwards all the way to Tsavo East National Park, a rolling thicket of wild bush spanning across the vast Chakama, Bofu, and the nearby Binzaro and Shakahola villages, spreads out deep and wide concealing the activities of the forest to the unsuspecting world.

While a number of locals in the neighborhood say they only learnt of the cult activities after the discovery of the graves, latest accounts from residents who claim to have spotted and reported cases of emaciated people, and later graves being dug deep in the forest, carves out a different scenario that points at gaps within the intelligence circles.

At the same time, presence of elephants is a clear indication that activities in the vast ranches should be of interest to Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS). So where was KWS when the deaths and digging of graves was going on?

Jonathan Charo Kalama, a boda boda rider at  Binzaro area which borders the forest, says in mid 2020, they notified village elders of suspicious activities within the forest.

“While using the routes to what we would later realize was Mackenzie’s cult, we used to meet emaciated children and women and we would often stop to help them. We would give them money hoping it would be of their assistance. We once raised an alarm with the village elder after sensing that the trend was worrying but no action was taken,” Kalama says.

The rider recalls that shortly afterwards, they encountered a freshly dug grave, something that further confirmed their worries about the state of women and children in the thickets.

“We organised in a group of about 50 young people…we wanted to raid the place and find out what was going on. However, our plans were stopped because the area was surrounded by heavily built men who retaliated by attacking us with clubs. They injured several of us. We also realized that accessing the place via the other side of Msimba, there were many graves that they had concealed by planting amaranth on top and that was when we realized that people were dying inside there and the government was not even aware. We were shocked to the core,” explains Kalama.

Peter Ndoro Chewa, another boda boda operator, narrated how one time while they were searching for lost goats, they found people digging a grave.  That was months before the mass graves were discovered.

“We were three and we were looking for goats. When we got there, we saw people digging something like a grave. At the time, we did not know that it was a grave. When the people saw us they stopped us and turned us away saying they had not seen any goats. We had to go back,” Chewa says.

He added: “When the government operation started, the victims started coming out and some came to our homes and we even gave them tea and porridge before we called the authorities.”

Most of Mackenzie’s followers, according to residents, hardly relied on boda boda for transport as they had a number of motorbikes and bicycles which they used to carry new members.

Charo Katana Thoya, resident of Binzaro, recalls his bitter encounter with Mackenzie’s private guards when they planned to raid the cult.

“We wanted to go and find out what exactly was going on in those places. We were accompanied by a village elder but when we approached the area, there were four men armed with clubs, catapults and machetes who clobbered us. I was indisposed for two weeks after sustaining injuries on the shoulder and arms after the guards beat me up,” he said.

According to Nyumba Kumi elder in the area Tabu Kajole, the whole story of Mackenzie cult was not clear until one of the members got married to a young man from Kahuweni area when the cat came out of the bag.

“Initially we would see people coming from that direction with bikes to fetch water and we would not take much concern because there are many people who have bought land in this area so you don’t go questioning everyone. When a young man got married to a member of the cult, he was indoctrinated. They got one child but shortly afterwards he denounced the cult and separated with his wife,” he explained.

Kajole added: “He paid the dowry to the woman’s parents and returned to Kahuweni taking his child with him. He went on to reveal to his wife’s parents that their daughter had joined a cult and they needed to look for her. When the parents heard about the story they went out to look for their daughter, only to find out that she had died and that was when people realized that people were dying in the cult.”

The Nyumba Kumi elder is among the group of people who were contacted by authorities to lead the search and rescue in the forest where they discovered that the cult members had stocks of food but they were starving to death.

Apparently, the cult leader had convinced his followers that the world was to come to an end in March and it was important  for them to go to the wilderness and begin fasting to meet Jesus.

The residents now say they fear for their lives following the emergence of the cult details and the operation currently going on in the forest.

“It is important for police to intensify security in this area because for sure Mackenzie is a dangerous man. For sure we know Mackenzie and his men have marked us. Once Mackenzie is out we don’t know what he has planned for us. The incident has been traumatizing. It will take a lot for us to return to normalcy,” explained the elder.

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