NAIROBI,Kenya, Apr 30 — President William Ruto has said that he will establish a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the mass graves in Kilifi’s Shakohola linked to a suspected cult.

This, he said, will prevent and deter preachers with ulterior motive from conducting such attrocities in the country.

Speaking during a church service in Kapenguria, Westpokot, the Head of State stated that he will soon appoint members of the judicial commission inquiry to ensure justice is served and that individuals like Paul Mckenzie, who is linked to the Shakahola ‘church’, will desist from harming citizens.

“We are all Christians and Kenya is a God fearing country, however, there are those who are using religion to harm people, to kill, fraud and do ungodly acts to human beings in the name of religion and we have now said we will come up with a judicial commission of inquiry to stop such acts from happening again in the nation,” he said.

“The Judicial commission inquiry will probe what happened in Shakahola through the so-called Mackenzie so we can get to the bottom of what really happened with the Mackenzie and all his collaborators.”

Ruto added that he will hold a meeting with the nation’s religious leaders to discuss the establishment of a task force and other measures to help weed out people who misuse religion, conduct business in churches, or engage in ungodly behavior in the name of religion.

Self-regulation

He said the consultative meeting will also help establish an agreed framework that will provide for self-regulation so that the religious leaders, and the church will have a mechanism where they can point out to the government those abusing religion.

“I will do consultations with the religious leaders in the country so that we can have a taskforce so that we can weed out the characters that want to abuse religion to run businesses and things that are anti religion in the republic of Kenya,” he added.

“We want to develop a framework that will provide for self-regulation so that church and the religious leaders can have a mechanism where they can point out to government those who want to abuse religion for other purposes.

He spoke even as the Ministry of Interior and National Administration transferred senior security officials from Kilifi in the wake of the discovery of dozens of bodies buried in Shakahola forest in what has been linked to controversial televangelist Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church.

The cult leader Mackenzie has been accused of driving his followers to death by preaching that starvation was the only path to God with the number of bodies exhumed as of Friday standing at 109.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki made the announcement Friday during his second visit to Shakahola located on the outskirts of the coastal town of Malindi.

He said the changes will affect top agents from all departments ranging from the Kenya Police Service, Administration Police Service, Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the National Intelligence Service.

Kindiki outlined the measures even as authorities intensified efforts to rescue surviving followers of Mackenzie.

Credible probe

“The Government has decided that effective today we will transfer all station, division, sub-county and county heads and commanders of all agencies within Kilifi County effective today (Friday),” Kindiki said.

“We will replace them with colleagues from elsewhere so that we can show the public that what we are doing is for the good of the country and sake of justice.”

The Interior CS however explained that by effecting the transfers, the Ministry was not implicating anybody on the failure to detect the criminal activities by the preacher.

“We are saying if you are the OCS, the commander or the person who ought to have either received a report or you may have received the report and failed to act then you cannot be part of the team that is conducting the investigation,” he said.

He added that it is the policy of the government that all those who are in command position at all levels must be deployed elsewhere and allow their colleagues from other stations to come and help push the investigations forward.

The Interior CS noted that the new team will co-ordinate with their counterparts from Nairobi to ensure they get to the bottom of the activities of Mackenzie.

He said the government had also upscaled the level and seniority of operation command in the ongoing process to search, rescue survivors as well as exhume bodies.

Kindiki further announced that DCI Director Mohamed Amin had also upscaled the level of leadership on the mass grave site which sits on an 800-acre of land.

“Therefore, the investigations are going to be conducted by new leaders of higher rank from Nairobi effective tonight,” he said.

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