Families recount tragic loss of children in Shakahola starvation case
Sephania Otieno Ogunda recounted the heartache of losing his daughter, Bella Faith Otieno, and her two children, Liza Agatha, 17, and Joy Ouma, 7.
The Mombasa Law Courts were filled with tense silence on Wednesday as families gave emotional testimonies in the ongoing trial over the Shakahola forest tragedy, where followers of Paul Nthenge Mackenzie’s Good News International Church died from starvation.
Sephania Otieno Ogunda recounted the heartache of losing his daughter, Bella Faith Otieno, and her two children, Liza Agatha, 17, and Joy Ouma, 7.
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He revealed that Bella had sold her property and left her home to join Mackenzie’s church in Kilifi, fully committed to its teachings.
Ogunda explained how his daughter sent him a sealed envelope through a former church member, asking him to sell a plot of land and keep the proceeds.
“When I called her to ask why, she said she wanted to use the money to spread the word of God because the world was coming to an end,” he said.
He later traced Bella after being told by a woman who had escaped the cult that she and her children had stayed behind in the forest.
From survivors’ accounts, Ogunda concluded that starvation claimed their lives.
Another witness, Ernest Vedasto Mwombeki of Tanzania, shared the devastating loss of his three children.
His wife, Judith Assery Mwandary, one of Mackenzie’s co-accused, took their children to Kenya after becoming engrossed in the preacher’s apocalyptic messages aired on Times TV.
Kaijuge, 10, Victor Kamugisha, 7, and Rwegasira Ernest, 2, all died in Shakahola.
Mwombeki said his wife had earlier been arrested in Nairobi for withdrawing the children from school, following Mackenzie’s advice against education and medical care.
She was given a non-custodial sentence and returned to Tanzania, but later crossed back into Kenya with the children.
He eventually found her among survivors rescued from the forest, weakened by starvation. She told him the children had gone with another woman. DNA results later confirmed that Nikson, his eldest son, was among the victims.
“Losing my children in such a manner is painful and difficult to explain,” he told the court.
The case will continue on Thursday with Chief Inspector Joseph Kolum expected to testify on phone communications between Mackenzie and his followers.
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