The mass grave site in Shakahola, Kenya, seen from the air.
In June last year, CNN reported on how authorities were slow to react to rumours coming from the cult commune.
Now a scathing official report, released this month by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), has outlined a pattern of failure, delays and negligence in the government response that the Commission says could have contributed significantly to the awful scale of the tragedy.
“The Commission faults the then security team in Malindi for gross abdication of duty and negligence,” the 33-page report reads. It describes how authorities failed to act on credible intelligence of the cult activities from several sources, alleging that they could have saved more lives.
The Commission found that police ignored numerous reports filed at the local police station, authorities ignored warnings about radicalisation at meetings, and how, in one case, a former follower was admonished and intimidated after posting specific warnings about the pastor and Shakahola on social media. Instead, they accepted a complaint from the pastor himself about the posts.
