Shakahola Convictions Welcome but Will Not Stop the Next Cult Deaths
After one of the worst non-conflict massacres in independent Kenyan history, what guarantees do we have that, in convicted killer and preacher Paul Mackenzi’s own words, “kitawaramba”, it will not catch up with us again. While his conviction with 28 associates on 19 October attracted over a hundred national and international headlines, media coverage offers no safety. What have learned?
Forty-three months ago, an active citizen unravelled the horror of Shakahola by reporting starving children to Lango Baya Police Station. Triggered by journalists and local human rights defenders, four rounds of state exhumations unearthed 429 body remains, among them 190 children. Chakama Ranch is so vast, the true toll may never be known. Yet the confirmed dead alone come close to 460, the combined death toll of Kenya's deadliest terrorist attacks.
Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache's 1,000-page judgment offers a chilling account of the Good News International Church and the state's limited capacity to protect citizens from extremist religious cults. Mackenzie and 28 associates were convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult. Drawing on end-times passages such as Matthew 24 and Revelation 12, the charismatic preacher built a system enforced by loyal elders. Followers were told they were God's chosen and instructed to flee into the wilderness where their rights to education, healthcare, food, state protection, and the freedom of movement were demonized and denied.
Monday’s convictions were hard won. Prosecutors had to overcome the sheer scale of the massacre, the cult's secrecy, deteriorated evidence, and the legal burden of proving each murder charge. A recurring question during the Mungatana-led Senate committee of inquiry that I appeared before, and in the wider public debate, was whether the proceedings had evolved into a trial of organised religion itself.
This conviction resolves the issue of culpability, and the 29 convicts deserve the strictest custodial sentence possible. As we wait for their sentencing on 6 November, larger questions about prevention remain. Mackenzi is not the first religious Kenyan fanatic to use faith to coerce, exclude, and sanctify violence. He will not be the last. Shakahola's dead demand stronger protection safeguards to detect and stop those weaponizing religion to harm their own followers and others.
How do we plug the social, religious and regulatory gaps that enabled the massacre to happen in the first place? How do we ensure that when concerned citizens blow the whistle on organised crime, national security agencies move more swiftly and decisively?
Given the magnitude of the national security threat Shakahola posed, the lack of attention by the Presidency, Interior Ministry as well as the political opposition is surprising. Religious and human rights leaders were also noticeably absent from the courtroom this week. Apart from a post by the Law Society of Kenya, there has been remarkably little public reaction. We can’t simply move on.
Given the scale of the violence, the use of religion, and the case's complexity and length, this silence and absences should worry us. Perhaps the faithful this weekend can ask their religious leaders what are they doing to rein religious extremism and can they attend sentencing on 6 November to comfort victims’ families and press for greater safeguards?
Post-Shakahola, it is time human rights organisations and religious institutions built a closer relationship to safeguard against human rights abuses within organised religion. Followers will not be kept safe by activist detachment or religious defensiveness. How can this moment be used to strengthening protection safeguarding and reporting mechanisms across Kenya’s vast religious eco-system?
Several of the Senate ad hoc committee recommendations on state security lapses and responsibility gather dust. Allegations of organ-trafficking and Mackenzi’s foreign financiers remain untouched. We are still no closer to a regulatory legal framework that protects against those who intentionally block transparency and accountability to their followers, the public and the authorities.
As we work on these safeguards, we can celebrate the survivors, relatives, whistle-blowers, forensic experts, investigators, prosecutors, judicial officers, health workers, human rights defenders and journalists for staying the course on this one. Individually and institutionally, you all deserve Mashujaa Awards in 2027. Asanteni!
This opinion was also published in the Saturday Standard, 24 October 2026.
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