Witnesses detail chilling ordeals in Shakahola massacre case

The Mombasa High Court this week heard harrowing testimonies from three witnesses in the murder trial of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie and 29 of his co-accused, charged over the deaths of hundreds of followers in the Shakahola forest, Kilifi County.

Testifying before Lady Justice Diana Kadveza, the witnesses under the witness protection agency, among them minors rescued from the forest, gave graphic accounts of starvation, beatings, and religious indoctrination that, they said, claimed the lives of many.

One witness testified that followers would gather under ‘Mitola trees’, specific trees in the forest, where Mackenzie, commonly referred to as “Mtumishi”, conducted teachings.

According to the testimony, Mackenzie instructed his followers to “fast until death”, starting with children, then women, then men, and lastly himself. He also taught that “Jesus was not coming, but rather they were to go to Jesus through fasting to death.

Those who resisted the fasting order, the court heard, were subjected to beatings. “If anyone refused, they were beaten,” the witness said.

The court was also told that some of the victims were only months old. Others were school-going children and grandchildren of the accused. Many of them, the witnesses added, were buried in the Shakahola forest and those burials were referred to as “weddings.”

A minor rescued from the forest recounted being denied food and water for days. “I was told not to eat, not to drink,” they said. He added that his mother reported him to Mackenzie that he was demanding water.

The minor also stated that, at one point, Mackenzie instructed that they be moved from their home because they were “not dying fast enough” and taken to another location where they would be placed under full-time supervision of guards employed by Mackenzie. He added that Mackenzie went even further to pray for him that the spirit in him of asking for water and food should leave and let him join his creator.

The witness further narrated to the court how his younger brother, who died from forced fasting supervised by their mother, was buried in a shallow grave by Mackenzie’s men, who were recruited as security in the wilderness to oversee the fasting and ensure those who died were buried.

In a striking observation, one witness said the accused in court appeared “healthier now than before,” drawing a contrast with the emaciated state in which many victims had been found.

The case prosecuted by Jami Yamina, J. V. Owiti and Betty Rubia continues in the week beginning 25th August 2025.