Bodies exhumed at Shakahola Forest in this photo taken on May 13, 2023.
Judges are set to leave the courtroom and step into the heart of the Shakahola and Kwa Bi Nzaro tragedies in order to gain a practical understanding of the heinous crimes linked to the indoctrination of hundreds of people, who were allegedly convinced by the preacher Paul Mackenzie that fasting to death was the only way to "meet Jesus".
Kilifi suspected cult leader Paul Mackenzie (in white and blue stripped shirt) follows proceedings at the Shanzu Law Courts.
In the Kwa Bi Nzaro case, the court, along with the defendants and investigators, will visit sites connected to the ongoing crimes against humanity case against Mackenzie, the self-styled priestess Sharleen Temba Anindo (also known as Ann), and others, relating to a new wave of deaths that claimed 52 lives.
Kwa Bi Nzaro cult prime suspect Sharlyne Anindo Temba at the Malindi Law Courts in Kilifi County on September 12, 2025.
In a rare judicial exercise, the proceedings will move from the courtroom to several locations that prosecutors claim were part of a network used to isolate, indoctrinate, and ultimately starve followers to death, resulting in the dissolution of families.
First, the court will visit the alleged terror cells in Malindi where victims of the Kwa Bi Nzaro case were allegedly accommodated after arriving from rural areas, before being taken to the forest and ordered to fast until death. Some of them were allegedly strangled.
Several witnesses have testified that they were welcomed, offered refreshments and accommodated on the premises before being moved to fasting camps at night.
Graves discovered at Kwa Bi Nzaro area, within Shakahola Forest, Kilifi County on August 15, 2025.
A couple who lost six children told the court that they were received in Malindi by Anindo, who then took them to the forest where their children later starved to death.
They also said that, after surviving the ordeal, they were taken back to the Malindi houses for about a month before being returned to the forest.
The judicial team will then proceed to the Shakahola Forest, where the remains of more than 450 followers of the Good News International Church were exhumed from mass graves. They will then head to the Kwa Bi Nzaro Forest, where another 52 victims were allegedly held in makeshift structures, starved, and buried in shallow graves.
Bodies exhumed from mass graves in Shakahola forest, Kilifi County are loaded into a vehicle during the operation on May 12, 2023.
The visit is expected to help the court evaluate and understand the evidence presented by the more than 30 prosecution witnesses who gave emotional and vivid accounts of watching their children die in makeshift structures in the forest.
A key issue that has emerged during the trial concerns why some parents did not break into the structures to rescue their starving children. Witnesses have testified that they were tied up, confined to separate rooms or otherwise prevented from intervening by guards enforcing the fasting orders.
In order to make sense of this testimony, the court is expected to inspect the temporary structures and their doors. Witnesses will demonstrate where they were restrained, where the guards stood watch and where they sat while their children died of starvation. Some witnesses lost as many as six children during the ordeal.
They are expected to be recalled to the crime scenes to demonstrate what transpired, including where they were held and how the events unfolded.
The court has also heard evidence that adults and children were separated upon entering the structures, with guards stationed outside to ensure compliance with the fasting instructions. Prosecutors argue that a physical inspection would enable the court to assess these claims properly and make a more informed decision.
Another issue the court is expected to examine is the relationship between the Shakahola and Kwa Bi Nzaro sites. Witnesses told the court that the two locations are approximately three kilometres apart.
Morticians carry the remains of a person exhumed at Kwa Bi Nzaro village within the vast Chakama Ranch in Kilifi County on August 28, 2025.
The court also heard that security personnel had been deployed around the Shakahola site following the discovery of mass graves in 2023, in an attempt to prevent further incidents. The court will therefore seek to understand how the alleged Kwa Bi Nzaro activities could have continued in such close proximity to an area under security surveillance.
The prosecution also intends to establish a link between the incidents at Shakahola and Kwa Bi Nzaro through witnesses who survived the 2023 Shakahola fast, returned home to Western Kenya and were later found in Kwa Bi Nzaro again, allegedly after receiving threatening calls from Mackenzie while he was in prison.
These witnesses are expected to show the court where they lived in Shakahola before they were rescued, and where they later stayed in Kwa Bi Nzaro. This will help to establish the alleged continuity of events between the two tragedies.
The prosecution requested that the court visit the crime scenes, arguing that this would enable the court to view the locations first-hand, collect evidence directly from the scenes, and interpret the evidence more effectively than relying solely on oral testimony, photographs, or recollections presented in court.
Prosecutors argue that this is the most effective way for the court to understand the complexities of the case, which involve indoctrination, organised fasting and alleged deaths in the name of religion. This will be the first time that the High Court has visited crime scenes linked to the Shakahola tragedy and received evidence at the locations themselves.
A police officer manning the home in Bi Nzaro Area, Kilifi County.
The state has charged Mackenzie, Anindo and four others with 23 counts of murder as crimes against humanity in relation to the Kwa Bi Nzaro deaths.
This followed a review of the investigation file, after which the state concluded that the evidence met the threshold for crimes against humanity under Kenyan law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, to which Kenya is a signatory.
The two alleged ringleaders are charged alongside Kahindi Kazungu Garama, also known as Mlewa; Tom Ochieng Mkonwe, also known as Thomas; Julius Thuva Luwali; and Johnson Gona Richard. They are accused of committing the offences between January and October 2025 in relation to the deaths of 23 children.
The state alleges that, as part of a widespread and systematic attack against its members and in furtherance of an organisational policy of the church, the accused knowingly caused the unlawful killing of multiple children.
Bodies exhumed at Shakahola Forest in this photo taken on May 13, 2023.
The victims are identified only by grave reference numbers assigned during exhumation. In alternative counts, the accused are also charged with murdering the same victims listed in the main charges.
Two other suspects, Charles Mutua Musee (also known as Mzee Mutua) and James Kazungu Kahindi (also known as Ponda or Baba Bura), face separate charges as accessories after the fact.
Musee is accused of harbouring Luwali at his home in Kanyaa Village, Mwingi Sub-County, knowing that Luwali had committed murder and thereby assisting him to evade arrest. Kahindi is alleged to have helped Temba, Garama and Mkonwe to escape arrest in Mombasa between July 19 and 21, 2025.
All the accused have denied the charges.
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