Police in Kilifi County have uncovered seven shallow graves containing human bones and skulls in Kwa Binzaro village, in what investigators suspect is yet another case of cult-linked deaths in the region.
Kilifi Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) chief Robert Kiinge said the remains appear connected to religious cult activities that have become disturbingly common in the county in recent years.
The discovery comes just weeks after police rescued four people and began probing the mysterious deaths of at least three others in a separate suspected radicalisation incident in Binzaro village, Chakama area. That July 22 operation—launched after a tip-off—also led to the recovery of two human skulls and the fresh body of an unidentified man from nearby thickets.
According to the Interior Ministry, those rescued included a 50-year-old man reported missing from Siaya County, his 40-year-old wife, and two women aged 40 and 19. Officials believe they had been held under the sway of extreme religious teachings.
A “prime suspect” and three alleged compound managers were arrested during the operation. Authorities later revealed that the man and woman rescued last month had also been among those saved during the infamous 2023 Shakahola forest operation—only to disappear again earlier this year with their six children, later resurfacing in Kilifi.
Part of Chakama borders the Shakahola forest, the site of the 2023 Shakahola massacre, where more than 450 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves linked to Pastor Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church. Mackenzie is accused of instructing followers to starve themselves and their children to death to “go to heaven.”
The latest find raises fresh fears that splinter groups from the Shakahola cult may still be active in the region.
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