The ongoing manslaughter trial of Pastor Paul Mackenzie and 94 others became deeply emotional today as two witnesses, including a minor, gave harrowing testimony in a Mombasa court about the devastating impact of the pastor’s alleged teachings on their families.
The case, linked to the deaths of over 400 followers in the Shakahola Forest incident, has horrified the nation and raised questions about the accountability of self-proclaimed religious leaders in Kenya.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) presented the 28th and 29th witnesses in the trial, which centres on the actions of Mackenzie, the leader of the Good News International Ministries, an apocalyptic Christian group.
The witnesses, testifying in camera to protect their identities, shared chilling accounts of starvation, coercion, and loss in the remote Shakahola Forest, where Mackenzie allegedly led his followers into a deadly fasting ritual.
A Minor’s Escape from Shakahola
The first witness, identified only as JNK, a minor and the third-born in a family of seven, recounted how his family’s life unraveled after his parents became followers of Pastor Mackenzie.
JNK told the court that his father initially resisted Mackenzie’s teachings, which included a rejection of formal education as “satanic.” However, he eventually succumbed to the pastor’s influence, pulled JNK and his siblings out of school and relocating the family to Shakahola.
In Shakahola, Mackenzie reportedly convened a meeting attended by many followers, ordered a phased fasting ritual—starting with children, followed by women, and then men. JNK described how his parents, in adherence to this order, locked him and his siblings in a room without food or water.
“We were left with nothing,” JNK testified, his voice trembling.
Desperate to survive, the minor managed to escape by cycling to a children’s home in Watamu, a coastal town miles away from the forest.
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A Mother’s Heartbreaking Loss
The second witness, identified as BMN, delivered gut-wrenching testimony about the loss of her seven children due to starvation and dehydration in Shakahola.
BMN, who joined Mackenzie’s church in 2017 after being attracted to his preaching on Times TV, explained how the pastor’s teachings led her to pull her children out of school and reject medical care, family planning, and government programmes like elections and the national census.
BMN recounted how Mackenzie closed his church and Times TV channel in 2019, creating a WhatsApp group to communicate with his followers. He then encouraged them to relocate to Shakahola, where they were required to pay KSh2,000 for two acres of land.
BMN, her husband, and their children moved to the forest and began farming, but their lives took a devastating turn when Mackenzie ordered the fasting ritual.
“They took away the foodstuffs I had in my house,” BMN told the court, referring to Mackenzie’s followers enforcing Mackenzie’s orders.
Pregnant at the time, BMN was forced to fast in an attempt to “kill the unborn.”
After two days without food or water, she gave birth, too weak to breastfeed her newborn. The infant died shortly after. BMN also revealed that followers were forbidden from mourning their children’s deaths, and she witnessed several other children die under Mackenzie’s instructions.
