KILIFI, Kenya, Aug 11 — The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kilifi has discovered seven shallow graves containing human bones and skulls in Kwa Binzaro village, following an exhumation order issued by the Malindi court on July 30.
County DCI chief Robert Kiinge said the remains are suspected to be linked to yet another case of cult-related practices, which have gripped the region in recent years.
The directive came after police rescued four people and launched investigations into the mysterious deaths of at least three others in a separate suspected case of religious radicalisation in the same village, located in Kilifi’s Chakama area.
The Ministry on Interior reported the recovery of two human skulls and a fresh body of an unidentified adult male in nearby thickets during an operation on a secluded five-acre homestead following a tip-off about suspicious religious activities.
A 50-year-old man reported missing in Siaya on April 15, his 40-year-old wife, and two women aged 40 and 19 were rescued from the compound on July 22.
Preliminary assessments indicated they may have been held under the influence of radical teachings.
Police arrested a “prime suspect” and three people said to be managers of the compound.
Chakama partly borders Shakahola forest, the site of the 2023 Shakahola massacre, where more than 450 bodies were exhumed in a starvation cult case linked to Pastor Paul Mackenzie of the so-called Good News International Church.
Mackenzie, currently facing multiple murders, is accused of instructing his followers to starve themselves and their children to death to “go to heaven.”
