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Hussein Khalid: 5 bodies exhumed in Shakahola
21st August, 2025 07:12 PM
Five bodies have been exhumed from shallow graves in Kwa Binzaro, Shakahola, Kilifi County, according to VOCAL Africa Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and civil rights activist Hussein Khalid.
On Thursday, August 21, 2025, Khalid confirmed the recovery, noting that the exercise coincides with the International Day in Support of Victims of Religious Violence.
“By the end of today, five bodies were exhumed from graves at Kwa Binzaro in Shakahola. The question we’re asking is, “If McKenzie was allowed access to a phone while in prison and he was calling his followers, who should be held responsible for these deaths?” he posed.
Further, he revealed that the exhumations are being led by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) homicide unit in collaboration with VOCAL Africa and other partners.
“The DCI Kenya homicide team, under the leadership of Mr Nyuguto, is on the ground working closely with VOCAL Africa and partners to ensure the process is carried out with dignity, justice, and accountability for the victims.”
Survivors
The grim exercise reopens wounds of the Shakahola tragedy, where hundreds of victims of suspected religious indoctrination and starvation have already been recovered since 2023.
This comes a week after the trial of the preacher laid bare harrowing accounts from survivors who endured starvation, brutality, and loss in the depths of Shakahola Forest.
The survivors stated that he preached that Jesus would not return to Earth; instead, they were to go to him through deliberate starvation.
His followers were instructed to fast without food or water until death. The chilling plan, they testified, had an order: children first, then women, followed by men, and finally Mackenzie himself.
The testimony came before Lady Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache in Mombasa on August 15, 2025, where three witnesses, including minors under protection, recalled the horrors they endured.
Prosecutors, led by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Jami Yamina, Senior Prosecution Counsel Juma Victor Owiti, and Betty Rubia, guided the court through graphic accounts that placed Mackenzie and others at the centre of a well-organised death cult.
Those who resisted fasting, the court heard, were brutally beaten. Not even infants were spared. Shallow graves littered the forest floor, burials that Mackenzie allegedly called weddings.
Funerals became religious ceremonies, with prayers offered over corpses before they were lowered into the ground.
Witnesses identified the accused persons charged with the murder of 191 children as the very people who enforced the starvation policy.
The court was informed how some acted as guards to prevent escape, others as diggers of the graves, and some as ushers during gatherings where Mackenzie preached his message.
