Kenyan government officials ignored “credible reports” that could have prevented the death of more than 400 suspected doomsday cult members, a state-funded human rights watchdog said on Friday.
The piles of human remains were discovered in April 2023 in Shakahola forest, a vast bushland that lies inland from the Indian Ocean town of Malindi.
The government is due to start releasing the exhumed bodies to relatives for burial next week after the DNA profiling was delayed by lack of reagents and equipment.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), a state-backed body, criticised security officers in Malindi for “gross abdication of duty and negligence”.
“They not only failed to be proactive in collecting and acting on intelligence to forestall the Shakahola massacre but also unjustifiably failed to act on credible and actionable reports,” KNCHR chairwoman Roseline Odede said.
Self-professed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his followers to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus”.
While starvation appears to be the main cause of death, autopsies carried out by the government found that some victims — including children — had been strangled, beaten or suffocated.
Between April and October last year, a total of 429 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves, while 67 adults and 25 children were rescued, according to government records.
