A Digital Cry for Help, Dismissed

MALINDI, KENYA – On Tuesday, November 11, 2025 (EAT), new court testimony has illuminated a chilling reality: Kenyan authorities were alerted to potential killings at Shakahola months before the discovery of one of the worst cult-related massacres in modern history. A Facebook post, which explicitly accused controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie of killing and burying people on his farm, was brought to the attention of the Malindi Police Station not by a concerned citizen, but by Mackenzie himself on November 11, 2022. He filed a complaint, framing the post as a defamatory attack on his character.

The post was published in the popular “Malindi Kenya” Facebook group by the daughter of one of Mackenzie’s former senior pastors—an insider who had escaped the cult. In her post, she desperately tried to sound the alarm, even tagging the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in the hope of spurring an official probe. However, instead of launching an investigation into the grave allegations, police treated the matter as a simple defamation claim. Sergeant Joseph Yator, then a DCI officer in Malindi, testified that he contacted the Facebook group's administrator and instructed them to either provide more information or remove the post. The administrator complied, and the post was deleted, effectively silencing a critical early warning. The police then advised Mackenzie to pursue a civil defamation suit.

A Pattern of Impunity

This incident was not an isolated lapse. By November 2022, Mackenzie was already well-known to law enforcement. He had a history of arrests for radical teachings, including charges in 2017 for running an unregistered school and encouraging children to quit their education, which he deemed "satanic". In 2019, he was again arrested for inciting the public against the Huduma Namba registration and for illegally operating a film studio. Despite this criminal record, his complaint was taken at face value, and the whistleblower's claims were not pursued. This failure to act on credible intelligence has been sharply criticized by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), which cited “gross abdication of duty and negligence” by security officers. A Senate commission of inquiry later concluded that the criminal justice system had repeatedly failed to deter Mackenzie's heinous activities.

The Unveiling of a Massacre

Just four months after the Facebook post was deleted, the horrific truth of Shakahola began to surface. In March 2023, a man reported his wife and daughter missing after they joined Mackenzie's Good News International Ministries. This report finally triggered a police raid on the 800-acre property in Shakahola forest in April 2023. What they uncovered shocked Kenya and the world: dozens of emaciated and dying people, alongside shallow mass graves.

The death toll has since climbed to over 450. Autopsies revealed that while many victims died from starvation, others, including a significant number of children, had been strangled, suffocated, or bludgeoned to death. Survivors and witnesses recounted how Mackenzie had instructed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death in order to “meet Jesus” before a predicted end of the world. An armed “enforcer gang” was reportedly used to kill followers who tried to break the fast or escape the compound.

National Reckoning and the Quest for Justice

The Shakahola tragedy has forced a national conversation on the regulation of religious organizations in Kenya. In response to the public outcry, President William Ruto appointed a Commission of Inquiry in May 2023 to investigate the massacre and the security lapses that allowed it to happen. However, the High Court later declared the commission unconstitutional, citing an overreach of presidential power and a violation of the separation of powers. Separately, a presidential task force submitted a report in July 2024 recommending sweeping reforms, including the establishment of a State-backed Religious Affairs Commission to vet and oversee all religious groups.

Meanwhile, the legal process continues. Paul Mackenzie, along with 94 co-defendants, is facing a battery of charges including murder, manslaughter, terrorism, and child torture. The trials are ongoing, with prosecutors presenting extensive evidence and testimony from protected witnesses, including the very individuals who tried to warn authorities through social media. The case stands as a stark reminder of the devastating consequences when warnings are ignored and accountability fails, leaving a nation to grapple with a preventable tragedy that unfolded in plain sight.