The hearing of a case against cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 92 others, charged with multiple counts under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and Prevention of Organized Crimes Act, continues at the Shanzu law courts.
The hearing resumed on Monday, September 30 when a minor witness under the Witness Protection Agency recounted how his family was drawn into Mackenzie’s web of teachings by his elder sister who introduced them to Mackenzie’s Times TV.
The witness, in his testimony that spilled over to the second day, described how his mother became so captivated by Mackenzie’s messages that she started attending the Good News International Ministry’s Nairobi branch. This led to the witness, then a primary school student in Nairobi County, being pulled out of school as the family prepared to relocate to the Shakahola forest.
In February 2022, the witness’s mother moved to Malindi to set the stage for their arrival, selling off their properties in Nairobi. Just two days later, she instructed the witness, his sister, and a 15-year-old cousin to join her in Malindi.
They met at Mackenzie’s church, and the church quickly arranged transport to Shakahola forest. The four of them found themselves in a tuk-tuk, owned by one of Mackenzie’s followers, heading deep into the forest, about 80 kilometres from Malindi town.
In an unusual act of generosity, Mackenzie, through his operative in the forest, provided the family with land in Shakahola, where they built mud-walled houses with makuti-thatched roofs.
By mid-2022, Mackenzie tightened his grip, declaring that forced fasting would begin, starting with the children, followed by the youth, women, men, and finally Mackenzie and his family.
The witness who has since resumed studies, recounted his rescue in March 2023 by the area chief and local village head. He was handed over to the Malindi Subcounty Children Officer and, due to severe malnutrition, taken to Malindi Subcounty Hospital and later to Mayungu Rescue Center for counselling.
He shared his harrowing experience with law enforcement officers, noting that at the time of his rescue, his mother and sister were missing, while his cousin, now a prosecution witness, was also rescued in a severely malnourished state.
A second witness who is a minor also under protection testified on the second day, when he laid bare the fact that Pastor Mackenzie’s teachings were heavily influential on their family, to the extent that the all Muslim family joined the Good News International Ministry Church.
The witness continued with his testimony into the third day of the hearing, disclosing to the court that before joining the pastor’s church, his father, who was a drunkard started watching Mackenzie’s teachings on Times TV.
Within no time, he had become a staunch follower of the preacher. He managed to convince the rest of his family to watch the preachings, with a subsequent request for them to join him in attending the Good News International Ministry Church in Makongeni, Nairobi.
Following Mackenzie’s unorthodox religious teachings, the witness’s father ordered him and his three siblings to stop schooling. They were pupils in one of the primary schools within Nairobi. According to the teachings, schooling was devilish.
The witness’s mother who was a salonist also resigned due to the ‘devilish’ nature of braiding hair and applying makeup.
In April 2022, the witness accompanied his father to Shakahola forest where his father bought an acre of land from Mackenzie at Kshs. 3,000. The witness’s mother and his three siblings had escaped to their rural home a year earlier.
The witness narrated how when they were forced to fast, people would die in their numbers, and that their graves would be levelled, and vegetables planted on top to conceal their presence.
He managed to escape in August 2022, where he was rescued by Malindi’s Children’s Officer and taken to Malindi Police Station, and later to a Children’s Centre. He added that he no longer knows the whereabouts of his father whom he left in the forest.
Source: DCI
