Court of Appeal judge Jessie Lessit will lead a commission of inquiry investigating the Shakahola massacre.
President William Ruto gazetted the commission of inquiry, saying there were mass deaths, cruelty, maiming, other inhumane and degrading acts perpetrated on members linked to the Good News International Church.
The commission of inquiry shall prepare and submit a report and its recommendations to the President within six months from May 4, 2023.
He said the scale of the death toll and the depravity of the actions committed against those involved has shocked the nation.
Ruto said he will hold extensive discussions with spiritual leaders from across the country to develop a legal framework within which religious centres will operate.
The President said the framework will help in taming individuals who seek personal gain in the name of religion.
"I will hold consultations with our religious leaders to have a task force we can weed out the characters who want to abuse religion to run businesses and things that are anti-religion," he said.
"We want to provide a framework agreed with our religious leaders that will provide for self-regulation so that our church, religion and spiritual leaders can have a mechanism where they can point out to government those who want to abuse religion for other purposes."
The President said the Shakahola tragedy has brought to the fore the issue of the existence of religious extremist organisations, sects, cults, and other similar outfits in Kenya.
Ruto said the unprecedented nature of crimes committed and the complexities of evidence gathering in such circumstances necessitates the establishment of a framework to document the circumstances of the tragedy and to probe into the matter.
The other commissioners will be Justice (Rtd) Mary Muhanji Kasango, Eric Gumbo, Bishop Catherine Mutua, Dr Jonathan Lodompui, Dr Frank Njenga, Wanyama Musiambu and Albert Musasia. The joint secretaries will be Oliver Kipchumba Karori and Rachel Maina.
The lead counsel will be Kioko Kilukumi, who will be assisted by Vivian Janet Nyambeki and Bahati Mwamuye.
The mandate of the commission shall be to inquire into the deaths, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment of members and other persons linked to the Good News International Church in Kilifi county. It will also establish the circumstances under which the deaths, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment occurred.
The team will look into the legal, institutional, administrative, security, and intelligence lapses that may have contributed to the occurrence of the deaths.
“Identify, based on evidence laid before the commission, the persons and organisations who bear the greatest responsibility for the Shakahola tragedy, and to recommend specific actions that should be taken against them including admonition, regulatory actions, reparations or recommendation for criminal investigation.”
The team will recommend legal, administrative or other forms of accountability action against any public official whose actions or omissions are established to have wilfully or negligently contributed to the occurrence of the Shakahola tragedy.
It will inquire into the factors that lead to the rise of that particular religious extremist institution as well as the factors that give rise to such religious extremist institutions, cults, or occultist groups, and other formations that foster negative religion-based activities.
It will recommend legal, administrative, institutional, and regulatory reforms aimed at preventing the occurrence of future situations of deaths or gross violations of the rights and welfare of persons by religious extremist institutions, cults or occultist groups, and other formations that foster negative religion-based activities.
The Lessit team will receive views from members of the public, receive oral or written statements from any person with relevant information and may use official reports of previous investigations, and use any investigation report by any institution or organisation.
This follows the discovery of 110 bodies from the forest buried in shallow graves.
Exhumations will resume on 15 newly identified graves.
The victims were members of the Good News International Church, founded by pastor Paul Mackenzie.
They were allegedly buried after starving to death and out of strangulation 'to find Jesus'.
Dozens more bodies are believed to be buried in shallow graves therein. Forty-nine people have been rescued from starvation.
Mackenzie is being investigated for influencing his followers to starve to death.
He insists that he shut down his church in 2019. The followers say he told them to starve themselves to "meet Jesus".
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