Shakahola trial: Former co-preacher reveals Mackenzie urged followers to shun society, await "direct ascent to heaven"
Mackenzie declared that a supernatural rapture would take place in June 2023 and insisted that followers must detach from education, employment, medical care and family ties to secure their place in the afterlife.
Fresh testimony has shed new light on the teachings of preacher Paul Mackenzie, with a former associate telling the High Court in Mombasa that Mackenzie urged his flock to detach themselves from society and prepare for what he framed as a "direct ascent to heaven".
The revelations came as the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions intensified its case in the ongoing Shakahola massacre trial, where Mackenzie and 29 others are charged over the deaths of 191 people.
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Before Justice Diana Kavedza, former co-preacher George Mwaura Kiburu described an environment in which Mackenzie systematically discouraged any form of engagement with the State.
He said worshippers were instructed to avoid government services, including the rollout of the Huduma Number, which Mackenzie branded as spiritually dangerous.
Mwaura, who served alongside Mackenzie between 2018 and 2020, told the court that he was convinced to abandon his work as a bus driver and join the Good News Church full-time. His daughter, he added, also left school at Mackenzie’s request to assist with editing church sermons.
According to his testimony, Mackenzie declared that a supernatural rapture would take place in June 2023 and insisted that followers must detach from education, employment, medical care and family ties to secure their place in the afterlife.
Another witness, Bernard Mkalasinga, appeared virtually, telling the court that his sister, Pamela Muhonja, abandoned her church, shaved her hair and moved to Shakahola with her daughter and granddaughter after embracing Mackenzie’s teachings. She stopped communicating with relatives entirely. Her remains were later identified through DNA profiling in 2023, but her daughter and granddaughter have not been traced.
The State further relied on testimony from Monica Muvea, who said her sister Felista Kamandi underwent a drastic transformation under the influence of Mackenzie’s teachings.
Kamandi, a mother of 10, withdrew her children from school and refused medical help, claiming that illness was a manifestation of evil spirits. Muvea said Kamandi disappeared after saying she was going to see Jesus in Mombasa and later surfaced in Shakahola, where she occasionally sent messages requesting money. One of her children died of starvation-related complications. Kamandi was later arrested and charged with manslaughter.
Providing technical evidence, Dr Donna Nyamanga, a forensic pathologist and medical doctor, told the court she examined 211 bodies recovered from Shakahola and assisted in determining age and gender during the identification process.
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