Shakahola tragedy: Families describe horror as survivors died en route to hospital
In a Mombasa court, investigators and families detailed how Shakahola survivors died en route to hospital, children were traumatised, and 191 deaths were linked to Good News International Ministries.
The quiet anguish of families torn apart by the Shakahola tragedy resurfaced in court on Monday, as an investigating officer recounted how four frail survivors died on the way to the hospital after being pulled from the forest.
Before the Mombasa High Court, Sergeant Benson Ingosi described the desperate condition of the fifteen people rescued alive from Shakahola Forest. He said four of them, so weak they could barely stand, died in the vehicle as officers tried to rush them to Malindi Hospital.
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Ingosi had been deployed to the forest on 13 April 2023, where security teams began uncovering starving followers, lifeless bodies hidden in shallow graves, and fasting bays enclosed with thorny branches.
He spoke of the eerie silence that greeted investigators as they moved from one homestead to another, finding people who had attempted to fast themselves to death under the doctrine of Good News International Ministries.
Decomposing bodies
Ingosi also recalled being called to Langobaya on 18 April 2025, where villagers had discovered two decomposing bodies.
Eleven days later, still stationed at Shakahola, he processed another scene in which the body of a woman was found, long past recognition.
But it was the testimony of George Okaka that cast the deepest shadow over the courtroom. He told the judges how he buried his wife and four children in October 2025—a family once complete, now reduced to memories.
Two more of his children remain missing after joining Mackenzie’s church in 2019.
He said his wife had travelled to Shakahola with the children in September 2022, shortly after burning their schoolbooks and identification documents. Months later, she phoned him only once, in 2023, asking for Sh6,000.
Sold a cow
He raised the money with the help of his father-in-law, who sold a cow. He never heard from her again.
The court also heard from child psychologist, Dr Florence Mueni, who presented assessments compiled by six specialists after interviewing 26 children rescued from the forest. The reports reveal deep emotional scars carried by the young survivors, many of whom witnessed death, starvation, and isolation.
The prosecution has so far called 70 witnesses as it seeks to unravel how 191 people lost their lives in what has become one of Kenya’s most haunting tragedies tied to Pastor Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries.
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