In April 2023 police in Kilifi County, Kenya, began finding starving followers of the Good News International Ministries and graves in Shakahola forest, and a Senate committee later counted 429 deaths. Pastor Paul Mackenzie and associates were charged with murder, terrorism and other offences. On October 19, 2026 the High Court convicted him and 28 others on 191 counts of murder of 190 children and one adult.
Mackenzie and 28 co-accused stand convicted of murder and await sentencing set for November 6, 2026. Separate manslaughter and terrorism cases, including charges over deaths at Kwa Binzaro, were pending in the sources reviewed, with not guilty pleas reported.
Witnesses told the High Court that on March 22, 2023 a multi agency team led by the Malindi criminal investigations office raided Shakahola forest and arrested Paul Mackenzie and others, and that he was released the next day on cash bail of 10,000 shillings. The Senate committee recorded that the arrest followed allegations over the deaths of two children from starvation and suffocation.
A witness reported to criminal investigators on April 13, 2023 that about 20 emaciated people were being guarded in the forest, a police officer testified, according to the High Court judgment.
Officers went to Shakahola on April 14 and found many thin, malnourished and sick people, according to evidence summarised in the judgment. Fifteen were rescued, four of whom died on the way to Malindi hospital. The Senate committee said this was when the full extent of the deaths was discovered.
The State applied in Malindi on April 17, 2023 to hold Mackenzie and 13 others for 30 days over offences including murder, and to exhume 17 bodies for post mortem, toxicology and DNA tests, according to the Senate committee's table of cases.
Prosecution witnesses testified that the formal exhumation exercise began on April 21, 2023, led by the Chief Government Pathologist, with graves identified through intelligence and physical signs on the ground.
The Senate approved a motion establishing an ad hoc committee to investigate the proliferation of religious organisations and the circumstances of more than 95 deaths in Shakahola, its report states.
President William Ruto established a Commission of Inquiry into the Shakahola tragedy, chaired by Justice Jessie Lesiit, and a presidential taskforce on the legal and regulatory framework governing religious organisations. The notices, Gazette Notices 5660 and 5661, are dated May 4, 2023 and appeared in the Kenya Gazette of May 5, 2023.
A magistrate at the Shanzu Law Courts allowed police to hold Mackenzie and 17 others for up to 30 days from May 3, 2023, on an application citing provisions including the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and ordered that they be treated humanely and given reasonable access to their lawyers.
The ad hoc committee's report was laid before the Senate on October 19, 2023. It recorded that 428 bodies had been exhumed by October 13, 2023 and that one suspect had died in custody, bringing deaths to 429, and said it had reasonable cause to believe Mackenzie contributed directly or indirectly to the deaths. Citizen Digital reported that it recommended disciplinary action against 11 security officers and deregistration of the church.
A motion to adopt the ad hoc committee's report, laid on the Table on October 19, 2023, was moved in the Senate on November 23, 2023, according to Mzalendo's record of Senate motions.
The 31 accused in Malindi High Court Criminal Case E003 of 2024 were arraigned on February 6, 2024 on 191 counts of murder and all but one, found unfit to plead at the time, pleaded not guilty, according to a later ruling.
Justice M. Thande held that a charge sheet with 191 murder counts was overloaded and directed the prosecution to file an amended information with no more than 12 counts.
In a petition brought by the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party, Justice L. N. Mugambi declared the President's May 4, 2023 decision establishing the Commission of Inquiry unconstitutional, null and void, and quashed Gazette Notice 5660. He also declared section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act unconstitutional to the extent that it gives the President unrestrained discretion to appoint a serving judge to a commission.
The Court of Appeal allowed the prosecution's appeal and set aside the High Court order to cut the counts to no more than 12. The judgment, from the Court of Appeal at Malindi, was delivered at Mombasa and recommended that a High Court judge hear the case on a day to day basis.
Mackenzie and seven others were arraigned at the Shanzu Law Courts on terrorism related charges connected to the deaths of at least 52 people at Kwa Binzaro in Chakama, Kilifi County, between January and July 2025, The Eastleigh Voice reported. Prosecutors alleged the group operated as an organised criminal network.
Justice Diana Kavedza found that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against all the accused on all counts and placed them on their defence. Her ruling noted that 429 bodies had been exhumed by October 2023.
In Gazette Notice 15179, dated September 17, 2026, the County Government of Kilifi asked relatives and the public to identify and collect 443 bodies and 45 body parts exhumed after the Shakahola and Binzaro deaths from the Malindi Sub County Hospital mortuary within 21 days, after which unclaimed remains would be disposed of under the law.
The High Court convicted Mackenzie and 28 co-accused on 191 counts of murder covering the deaths of 190 children and one adult between January 2021 and September 2023. Proceedings against two accused abated after they died. One of the 29 had pleaded guilty to all counts and was convicted on his own plea, the Kenya News Agency reported. Sentencing was set for November 6, 2026.
Speaking at a press briefing after the judgment, Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga said the prosecution was satisfied with the judgment and would now await sentencing, the Kenya News Agency reported.
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Last updated 31 October 2026. Spotted an error? See corrections. Every event links to the record it comes from. Allegations are attributed to whoever made them.