- The death toll exceeded 400 after 12 more bodies were found on Monday.
- The Danson Mungatana-led committee will also meet the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa and Settlement Funds Trustees.
Image: FILE
Senate Adhoc Committee investigating the Shakahola deaths will on Wednesday hold meetings with Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu.
The committee chaired by Tana River Danson Mungatana will also meet the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa and Settlement Funds Trustees.
The meetings come as the death toll exceeded 400 after 12 more bodies were found on Monday in the latest round of exhumations in the Shakahola forest.
"The death toll stands at 403," Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha told the media.
The Senate committee will meet the ODPP even as the Judicial Service Commission pledged to re-visit all past cases against Pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International.
In March 2017, Mackenzie, Winne Alexander Gandi and Betty Mwaka were jointly charged with the offence of offering Basic Education in an unregistered institution, contrary to the Basic Education Act.
The accused entered into a plea bargain with the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and were discharged by the trial court and ordered to be of good behaviour.
On October 17, the same year, Paul Mackenzie was charged with four offences.
Two days after taking a plea, he was granted cash bail of Sh100,000 and an alternative bond of Sh500,000. He was asked to report to the OCS Malindi each week.
He was acquitted on October 29, 2021.
In April 2019, Mackenzie was charged yet again. This time, with three different charges.
According to government autopsies, starvation appears to have been the main cause of death, although some victims, including children, were strangled, beaten or suffocated.
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver-turned-preacher, has been in police custody since mid-April.
A video also emerged of children who claim to be from Good News International saying that they don't go to school.
One of them, a boy can be seen holding the bible and claiming that it is the Bible that prohibits formal learning and going to the hospital.
The boy claims that himself and other colleagues of his age dropped out of school to follow the teachings of the church which are against going to the hospital and schooling.