While the number of bodies exhumed from two-foot-deep graves in Shakahola forest, Chakama ward in Kilifi County has reached 39 after being counted, more questions than answers surround the events that led to the deaths of the alleged believers “the good news International denomination” of pastor Paul Mackenzie.
Human rights organizations are now blaming the government organizations in Malindi in Kilifi County for not confronting the preacher earlier against what is alleged to be spreading a false gospel to his followers.
This is after the number of bodies being exhumed reached 39 in Shakahola in the operation to exhume the bodies believed to belong to the pastor’s associates.
The body continued to be found in a farm allegedly owned by Mackenzie after detectives from the special domestic homicide unit led by its director general Martin Nyuguto camped in the Shakahola forest.
The number of exhumed bodies is increasing day by day as the operation continues, while social organizations fear that the efforts of the few investigators leading the operation may be hampered and they will be very tired because they are the ones who are saving the survivors.
Haki organization has now called on the government through government agencies to give priority to the issue and ensure that more security officers are sent to the area.
According to the director general of the organization Hussein Khalid, if security officers are added to the area, it will help a lot in the rescue operations of the people left in the forest.
“The officers here are doing a very good job but we ask the relevant organizations to increase the number of these officers because this area has 800 acres where all these things are happening and many are in danger,” said Mr Khalid.
However, Khalid has said that in order to prevent such issues from happening, he is asking the government to develop strategies that will ensure that houses of worship are limited.
Khalid has also appealed to the government through the Minister of Defense Aden Duale to put a stop to the issue and even send soldiers to increase the strength in the ongoing operation.
Khalid also reported that the evil that happened is more than what happened in Njoro, what happened in Yala and also more than what happened in Tana River.
Because such a situation that happened in the Shakahola forest is historical because it has never happened in Kenya.
Even if the answer to this call is awaited, the question that arises is that when did the dangerous wave of misguided ideology involving preacher Mackenzie start? And how did the eagle-eyed national intelligence service slip up?
On his part, the manager of Mayungu Children’s Home Hellen Mwikali has blamed the government for not confronting pastor Mackenzie earlier to prevent such evils from happening.
According to him, a large percentage of children have lost their lives.
“I have had this case of Mackenzie since 2017. I see that the government has relaxed a bit. The first 43 children were brought, the other 30 were taken to the rescue center, half of that number died,” said Ms. Mwikali, the center’s manager.
This is happening one month after pastor Mackenzie who is the pastor of the Good News International church was arrested on suspicion of causing the deaths of two children who allegedly died after being kept on a fast.
It is a case in which Mackenzie was later released on Sh10,000 police bail by Malindi high court judge Olga Onalo.
Then on the 14th of this month of April, Mackenzie was arrested again for other crimes and on the 17th of April he was brought to court.
Where the chief judge of the high court of Malindi Elizabeth Usui revoked his bail and gave an order to allow the police to detain him for 14 days to give them a chance to complete the investigation.
Judge Usui said pastor Paul Mackenzie, Robert Kahindi Katana, Alfred Asena, Sanga Stephen Muye, Gedion Mbithi Kioko, Joseph Kenga Mbogoli, and Stephen Ominde Lwangu will be detained under police custody for 14 days pending the completion of the investigation.
According to Detective Joseph Yator from the Malindi Criminal Investigation Department, the police managed to rescue a third child who narrated the suffering that his two brothers went through before they died and were buried in a shallow grave in Shakahola forest.
However, the exercise of excavating graves to remove bodies is still going on, but the director general of the children’s department in the coastal area, George Migosi, fears that the majority of bodies that will be removed from the graves will be children’s.
