Body Exhumed at Kwa Binzaro Village.[courtesy]
By Kimberly Kalusi
A Kenyan woman, Carolyne Oduor, has told the BBC she is living in fear over the fate of her two young sons who disappeared two months ago alongside their father — a follower of controversial cult leader Paul Mackenzie.
Oduor said she has since identified her husband’s body at the Malindi mortuary after it was discovered in July in Kwa Binzaro village, near the infamous Shakahola Forest, where more than 400 cult-related deaths were uncovered in 2023.
“I felt pain. I barely recognised him. His body was badly decomposed,” she told the BBC, referring to her late husband, Samuel Owino Owoyo, aged 45.
She believes her sons, Daniel (12) and Elijah (9), accompanied him to Kwa Binzaro at the end of June. Authorities are now carrying out DNA tests on more than 30 newly exhumed bodies to establish their identities.
Mackenzie, the self-styled pastor at the centre of the Shakahola Forest massacre, is facing trial and has denied manslaughter charges. Prosecutors accuse him of convincing his followers to fast to death, claiming it was the path to heaven.
Oduor recounted that her husband began following Mackenzie about five years ago, a move that caused deep conflict in their household. He discouraged formal schooling and medical treatment, insisting that prayer and faith were enough.
“He didn’t want the children to go to school. And when they got sick, he believed only God would heal them,” she said.
The situation escalated on 28 June when her husband left with their two youngest boys. “The last call I had with him, he told me: ‘We have gone, God be with you.’ I wished him a safe trip, but after that, there was silence,” Oduor told the BBC.
The grieving mother is now waiting anxiously for DNA results, hoping for answers about the whereabouts of her sons.
