Seven shallow graves with human bones, skulls discovered in Kilifi

Police in Kilifi County say they have discovered seven shallow graves with human bones and skulls at Kwa Binzaro village.

According to the county’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss, Robert Kiinge, the victims are suspected to have died in yet another case of cult practice, common in the county in recent years.

Just last month, police said they rescued four individuals and were investigating the mysterious deaths of at least three others in another suspected case of religious radicalisation in the Binzaro village of Kilifi’s Chakama area.

Two human skulls and the fresh body of an unidentified adult male were also recovered in nearby thickets, the Interior Ministry said, announcing an operation on a secluded five-acre homestead following a public tip-off about suspicious religious activities.

“A 50-year-old man who had been reported missing at Siaya Police Station on April 15, his 40-year-old wife, and two females aged 40 and 19, were rescued from the compound,” the ministry said on July 22. “Preliminary assessments indicate that the individuals may have been held under the influence of radical teachings.”

A “prime suspect” whose identity was not revealed was arrested, alongside three people said to be managers of the compound.

Part of Chakama encompasses Shakahola forest, where over 450 bodies were retrieved from shallow graves in a 2023 religious cult case, now infamously known as the Shakahola massacre.

Pastor Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church is accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so that they could go to heaven. 

In last month’s case, it is said that the man and wife arrested had been rescued during the 2023 operation, but disappeared again earlier this year.

In March, the couple fled their Siaya home with six children aged between 1 and 15 years before resurfacing in Kilifi, the man’s brother told Citizen TV.