Gov't to form Judicial commission of inquiry to probe Shakahola massacre

This comes as the government announced that 109 bodies have so far been exhumed from Shakahola forest, where members of the Good News International Church, founded by pastor Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, were allegedly buried after starving to death 'to find God'.

President Ruto stated that the commission will be expected to go through the case with a fine tooth comb and hold accountable everyone found culpable.

During a church service in West Pokot on Sunday, President Ruto said that the commission will also put an end to incidents similar to the Shakahola massacre.

"This week I will appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry so that we can get to the bottom of what happened in Shakahola with Mackenzie and all his collaborators," said President Ruto.

At the same time, President Ruto stated that he will hold extensive discussions with spiritual leaders from across the country to develop a legal framework within which religious centres will operate.

Ruto, who condemned the Shakahola massacre, stated that 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 taskforce so that 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."

Meanwhile, President Ruto stated, all commissioners and county officers have been transferred over what he termed as "sleeping on the job". 

"We transferred all those who slept on the job, the commissioners, policemen, CID officers who were there when the death of many Kenyans was happening.," he said. 

"We have told them to leave so that we can know what really happened."