Rescue of starving boy sheds light on Shakahola forest tragedy
Khadijah Wilson recounted how she and her younger brother found the boy, identified in court only as P.P., lying weak outside their shop in the Madukani area.
A villager from Shakahola has told a children’s court how she rescued a malnourished boy who had escaped from controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie’s enclave, a revelation that shed light on the grim reality inside the forest where hundreds later perished.
Testifying before Principal Magistrate Nelly Chepchirchir at the Tononoka Children’s Court, 26-year-old Khadijah Wilson recounted how she and her younger brother found the boy, identified in court only as P.P., lying weak outside their shop in the Madukani area.
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According to her testimony, the boy disclosed that he had fled from Mackenzie’s compound, where he had been subjected to starvation.
She said she sheltered him for nearly four months, after first reporting the matter to a village elder, who in turn contacted children’s officers.
“If we hadn’t rescued him, he would have died,” she said.
The boy was eventually placed in state custody for care and protection.
The testimony was part of a series of harrowing accounts presented in the ongoing case against Mackenzie and 35 co-accused, who are facing charges including cruelty to children, torture, and the denial of the right to education.
An elderly witness, Charles Adundo, described how two of his grandchildren disappeared after being collected from school by his youngest son, who is among the accused. “That was the last time I saw them,” he said.
Adundo explained that his daughter, a mother of ten, had entrusted him with the children before the incident.
Another account came from 70-year-old Felida Vugusa, who narrated how her daughter, Sarah Khahisha, her husband Mulama, and their five children disappeared while she was at church.
She told the court she later discovered that the family had been attending a secretive church and that Mulama was strongly against the children attending school.
The court also received scientific evidence from Government Analyst Henry Kiptoo, who said DNA profiling of remains exhumed from Shakahola had enabled his team to link victims to families who had reported missing relatives.
Out of 333 family samples, two DNA reports compiled in August and November 2024 identified 69 bodies, including children and close relatives of some of the accused.
In addition, the Director of the National Registration Bureau, Liwa Filbert, detailed how fingerprint matching was used to verify the true identities of several suspects.
Some had initially given false names to investigators, but fingerprint analysis confirmed the identities of more than 35 individuals linked to the case.
The hearing was adjourned until September 19, 2025
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