Detectives trace money trail in Kwa Binzaro cult deaths probe
So far, nine bodies have been recovered from shallow graves in Kilifi County, with investigators saying the funds financed recruitment, indoctrination, and logistics.
Detectives investigating the Kwa Binzaro cult deaths have turned their focus to financial transactions, with evidence showing money was used to lure and radicalise followers before transporting them to remote forests where they were starved to death.
So far, nine bodies have been recovered from shallow graves in Kilifi County, with investigators saying the funds financed recruitment, indoctrination, and logistics.
Court filings reveal that suspects rented houses in Malindi, where followers were sheltered and indoctrinated before being ferried to Chakama.
Once in the forests, they were confined, denied food and water, and closely monitored to stop them from leaving. Police named chief suspects as Kahindi Kazungu Garama, Thomas Mukonwe, James Kahindi Kazungu, and Sharleen Temba Anido, who are said to have set up homesteads to strictly enforce the fasting.
Detectives have already secured court orders to examine bank and M-Pesa records, arguing that the group “used money to advance their heinous plans.”
Phones, SIM cards and digital storage devices are undergoing forensic analysis at the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit lab, with results expected to reveal how the cult coordinated communication, instructions, and finances.
Preliminary findings have drawn links between the Kwa Binzaro suspects and Paul Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries, the organisation at the centre of the Shakahola massacre.
Investigators believe recruits were convinced to abandon their families and embrace fasting as the guaranteed path to heaven.
The Malindi court, under application No. E103/2025, authorised the exhumation, which is being led by Homicide Unit boss Martin Nyuguto. DNA profiling is ongoing to match the remains with missing persons, and families have been asked to provide samples to aid the process.
Police said several families from across Kenya have reported missing relatives, with some victims already traced to the graves. Last week, the court granted detectives 21 more days to hold suspects, among them Jairus Otieno Odek, Lilian Akinyi, and Kahonzi Katana Karisa.
Some of the detainees are reported to be uncooperative, with investigators describing them as deeply radicalised and convinced that fasting to death is the only way to meet Jesus.
