Shakahola Forest incident

In March 2023, Kenyan police began investigating Good News International Ministries, an apocalyptic Christian group led by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, after a man reported that his wife and daughter had traveled from Nairobi to join the group in Kilifi County and had not returned. Police discovered emaciated people and shallow graves on the group's 800-acre property in Shakahola Forest. Fifteen members were rescued and said they had been instructed to starve themselves to "meet Jesus"; four of the fifteen died before reaching a hospital.

Over the following weeks, searches of the property uncovered numerous additional graves, including one believed to hold five members of a single family and others containing up to twelve children's bodies. Some bodies were found unburied, and one survivor had reportedly been buried alive for three days before being rescued and hospitalized. Authorities said members of the commune sometimes hindered rescue efforts, and believed an unknown number of people remained hidden in the forest while continuing to fast.

According to testimony given to police, Mackenzie told followers that fasting would only "count" if done together on his property, that they should avoid contact with the outside world, and that they should destroy government identification documents. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki alleged that Mackenzie hired armed individuals to kill followers who tried to stop fasting or who took too long to die. By 10 May 2023, 133 deaths had been reported; by 2 August, the reported death toll had risen to 427, with 613 people reported missing. Autopsies on more than 100 bodies indicated deaths from starvation, strangulation, suffocation, and blunt trauma. By September 2023, Kenyan news reported 429 bodies had been exhumed, with causes including starvation, asphyxia, and head injury, while many remained unascertained.

Mackenzie, his wife Rhoda Mumbua Maweu, and at least 16 other members were arrested; by 14 June 2023, 36 people had been arrested in total. Mackenzie was denied bail on 10 May 2023, with police indicating intent to pursue terrorism-related charges. One suspect, Joseph Juma Buyuka, died in custody in June 2023 after a hunger strike. In July 2023, Maweu was released on bond while Mackenzie and others remained in custody. In January 2024, Mackenzie and 30 other defendants were charged with the murders of 191 children, most of whom could not be identified.

Police also raised, and later walked back, suspicions that some bodies were missing organs due to possible forced harvesting; autopsies on 112 exhumed bodies as of 8 May 2023 ruled this out. In August 2025, additional suspected victims' remains, including those of two children, were found in a shallow grave near Malindi, along with body parts and further suspected mass graves. Kenyan President William Ruto appointed a commission of inquiry and a task force to review regulation of religious organizations following the incident.