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In Shakahola, the search for graves continues

Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP

The Minister

During the press conference, the bone saw suddenly goes off, a high-pitched screech, for seconds. The Kenyan Minister of the Interior continues to speak undeterred, standing in front of the microphone in his gown, surrounded by women and men in white overalls and blue hairnets. He soberly and in a low voice recites figures that sound incomprehensible: 241 dead, several new mass graves found, more than 600 people missing.

A yellow and black ribbon with the inscription "crime scene" flutters in the wind, the sweet, acrid smell of corpses stings the nose, flies persistently land on the noses and ears of those present. The Minister of the Interior has invited to a press briefing in front of the morgue, the setting is supposed to show: He is looking the terrible truth in the eye. A member of his press team sets up a camera in front of a child's corpse lying under a white cloth on a metal table. Most of the victims of the end-time sect of Shakahola are children, and the refrigerated containers are no longer sufficient.

Then the minister's convoy races from the morgue in Malindi to the thicket of Shakahola, on the edge of the famous Tsavo National Park. After an hour's drive, the SUVs turn off the paved road and turn left into the thicket, which now resembles a crater landscape. Almost every day, the investigators come across more graves, entire families buried, only a few centimeters underground.

The autopsies so far have shown that the victims starved themselves to death, some were probably buried alive. They are victims of an end-time cult led by Pastor Paul Mackenzie. He promised them, "This is how you will come directly to Jesus." After hunger, paradise awaits. In agony, parents let their children die.

How can this horror be understood? How can such a thing be explained? What kind of mothers and fathers are they who let their children starve to death in agony? Together with Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRF), DER SPIEGEL met survivors and relatives on site, spoke with former companions of the pastor and experts. They are stories that reach deep into the cracks and fractures of a society, that tell of the consequences of the corona pandemic and a completely uncontrolled evangelical movement. Stories that led to one of the largest mass suicides in recent memory.

The Mother

Salama Masha sits on a flat stone in the sandy bottom on the banks of the Sabaki River. Her hair is shaved short, she is gaunt and has a scarf wrapped around her waist. The 28-year-old hardly looks up when she talks, holding her old Nokia mobile phone in her hands as if it had to ring at any moment. There is only one topic where her gaze breaks away from the black display, she looks at her counterpart, a strange sparkle in her eyes and her voice much louder: when it comes to Pastor Mackenzie. "His sermons were so captivating, we believed him unconditionally," she says. They felt special, Mackenzie made it clear to them. "We were the better Christians. We were saved, in the safety of Jerusalem. The world out there, that was Babel," she recalls.

In the beginning, the teachings of the charismatic priest were very similar to those of the thousands of other evangelical preachers on the African continent. It was about hope, about healing, about supposed miracles. But always about the other side: Satan, hell, evil that awaits sinners. And about the end of the world, which will surely come. By the time Salama Masha joined the sect, the followers had already moved from the city of Malindi to the countryside, to Shakahola.

Her husband convinced her to settle there as well, recalls the mother of five. They had previously had a hard life in the village, no work, the drought made it more and more difficult. On the pastor's ranch, on the other hand, there was a well, they farmed, had a small house, could take care of themselves. Yes, it was secluded, they had to walk more than 15 kilometers to the nearest small shop, but she still felt welcome in the "promised land".

Many things were different in this supposed Jerusalem. Children are not allowed to go to school, because secular education is a sin. Women should not wash. Her husband burned his identity card, his birth certificate, these documents were no longer needed. And then, in March, things finally tipped over: the pastor urged his followers to fast in order to get to paradise. Not all at once, Masha says, but gradually. Fasting for a few days, without water and food, then a short break, then starving for a few more days.

"It was bizarre," says the mother, who is actually used to hunger. "We had food in the house, and yet we didn't touch it." She began to doubt, asked more and more questions, argued with her husband. But he could no longer be stopped, at some point he boarded up the door of the house from the inside, forcing his entire family to starve. They had not eaten or drunk anything for seven days. "The worst thing was that my children wanted to die themselves. They were convinced that it was the right thing to do."

When her husband finally let his family out again, death had long since spread in Shakahola. Masha's neighbor buried one of her children, she says. "She tried to convince me that I should sacrifice my children, too." But the young mother decided to flee, no one had stopped her. Her husband said goodbye to her: "You will miss me when I am with Jesus." He was already very weak at that time, Masha is sure that he is no longer alive.

She has nowreturned to her mother, the children are eating again, but they are staying away from school. Not for religious reasons, but because there is no money. In Jerusalem death awaited, in Babylon life in poverty. And Masha has found a new church, again an evangelical one. Her faith almost cost her her life, now it is to redeem her.

The village elder

Behind Salama Masha, on the branch of a huge tree, sits one of the village elders of Shakahola. The end-time sect is now named after his place, internationally known, but the pastor's ranch is almost 20 kilometers away. But the followers came to Shakahola to go shopping, and here they also fetched food for their pastor at the very end, at the edge of their strength. Because he didn't starve, he wanted to be the last to die, he said.

DER SPIEGEL is not supposed to write the real name of the village elder, because his concern about the government is too great. Because the investigating authorities drove around, asked witnesses to remain silent, and have now cordoned off the crime scene extensively. Kalume F.*, the village elder, still remembers very clearly the time when the police did nothing. Even when the situation in Shakahola completely escalated. F. has experienced it himself.

One afternoon in March, these children suddenly found themselves with him in the village, he says. They would have looked starving, begging for help. Terrible things are happening on the pastor's ranch, something urgently needs to be done. Kalume F. tried the official route, he handed over the children to the authorities. But then nothing happened. "So we took matters into our own hands," says F., he mobilized his own village and the neighboring village, then they drove off on motorcycles to Mackenzie's estate.

They came to the entrance of the ranch, then the violence escalated: "His followers attacked us with machetes and clubs, people were injured, several motorcycles were torched," recalls the village elder. But it wasn't until weeks later that the police finally marched in on Pastor Mackenzie with a large contingent. They found people in the thicket who were barely alive, and shortly afterwards many corpses.

Kalume F. is still afraid. There is still a militia living on the huge and hard-to-penetrate estate, he says, and his village now fears their revenge. Finally, the Ministry of the Interior now wants to use drones to monitor the area and increase police patrols, more than two months after the sect was exposed. There are still a few survivors.

In Nairobi, meanwhile, the government promises to better regulate evangelical churches in the future, but few believe in it. Kenyan President William Ruto and his deputy are themselves considered religious hardliners. The free churches are becoming more and more popular, especially among younger people who are turning away from the traditional churches.

The Vice-President

Tough Mwakalama has just come out of the police station. He visited his brother Smart there, as he did almost every day. He brought him food, they talked about everything except Shakahola. "My mother told me not to bring it up, it would only traumatize him," says Mwakalama. He sits in a café in Malindi, his dreadlocks tied under a cloth, two things are important to him: to explain how his brother got in there and to make it clear how the police failed.

Smart Mwakalama, Tough's brother, is now known throughout the country as the right-hand man of Paul Mackenzie, he is accused of complicity, even though no charges have yet been filed. If it were up to Tough, his brother would have been in prison for much longer. Years ago, he reported him to the police when he became more and more religious, going to church every Sunday with Paul Mackenzie, at that time still in Malindi. "He's a very intelligent man, he was always joking, but the brainwashing was getting stronger and stronger," says Tough Mwakalama. He sees his brother as a victim and not as a perpetrator. Probably both are true.

At some point, Smart stopped taking his children to school, saying they were now in God's hands. They didn't go to the doctor either, "prayers are enough," his brother told him. Tough had enough, he went to the police and reported him. In fact, a case was opened, but in the end Smart got away with the equivalent of 130 euros bail, paid by Pastor Mackenzie, as Tough recalls. The children still did not go to school.

Mackenzie himself quickly realized how toothless the judiciary was towards him. Some say he helped with some money, but that wouldn't be surprising in Kenya. He was arrested twice for his sermons, in 2017 and 2019. Both times he was released – and became more and more radicalized.

Eventually, Smart told his brother that he was leaving Malindi, that they had bought land, in Shakahola. He bequeathed his old property to Pastor Mackenzie, as did several other followers. Then he moved with the whole family to the preacher's ranch, became his assistant and driver. "All of this could have been stopped," says Tough Mwakalama, "but the government has let us down."

The Pastor

A few minutes away from Mackenzie's mega church in Malindi, which was full every Sunday, stands Antony Muema's small church. The pastor spent a life in the shadow of the great competitor.

Muema had met his colleague Mackenzie at one of the so-called "crusades" in a stadium, literally translated as a crusade, they are huge events with thousands of believers where people are to be converted and supposed miracles are to be performed. He was a great preacher, he captivated people, his voice was great," Muema recalls. He, too, falls into a rapturous tone, as many do when they talk about the self-proclaimed pastor Mackenzie, who once drove tourists through Malindi as a taxi driver before he discovered his true talent.

"In the beginning, it was all about hope, about healing, and that's how he captivated people," says his colleague Muema. "But since the success of the television station, the sermons have become darker and darker," it was now against the government, in which Mackenzie saw the supposed evil. Mackenzie's Times TV station soon had thousands of viewers, and the sermons on screen must have brought him lavish donations. In Kenya – as in many African countries – this is often the case: whoever brings his messages loudest to the faithful wins.

How does he explain the success of colleagues like Paul Mackenzie? "They target people who are in need, the sick, people who need support. You can easily manipulate them.« Most of Mackenzie's followers did not have much money, and yet they sacrificed their last savings for their pastor.

But at some point, Father Muema believes, something had to happen. The end-time sermons wore out, the gloomy scenarios could hardly be increased. Then came the corona pandemic. "That was the perfect way out for Mackenzie. Now he could say: Look, I was right. The world is coming to an end."

The end

In 2019, shortly before the corona pandemic unsettled the world, Pastor Mackenzie closed his church and moved into the bush with his followers. During the pandemic, they became more and more radicalized. Then, in early 2023, he ushered in the final chapter of his dark story. He urged his community to starve themselves to death. Children first, then women, at the end it should be the men's turn. Almost all of them responded to his call.

*The name of the protagonist has been changed at his request.

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