Court told Mackenzie 'prophesied 2023 rapture', directed followers to Shakahola
Witnesses in the Shakahola case told the Mombasa High Court that Pastor Paul Mackenzie ordered followers to starve for an expected 2023 rapture, as families and a DCI officer detailed deaths and exhumations.
A former follower of Pastor Paul Mackenzie has told the Mombasa High Court that the order for worshippers to starve themselves was issued after a meeting allegedly chaired by the controversial preacher.
Testifying before the Court, 23-year-old Robert Kithi said Mackenzie informed followers that a rapture would take place three years after 2021, with the prophecy expected to culminate in mid-2023.
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Convinced that the end was imminent, he said many members relocated to Shakahola forest to await what they believed would be the Messiah’s arrival.
Kithi, who previously attended the Good News International Church in Malindi before its closure in 2020, told the court that Mackenzie later directed his congregants to settle in the Jagwani area of Shakahola.
He said he had been tasked with security chores, including guarding a dam from wild animals, while living at the site.
He recounted opposing the starvation directive and eventually fleeing when fasting rituals intensified. Kithi further revealed that he buried two of his siblings in November, adding that his mother barred him from retrieving the bodies, insisting they had gone to the Messiah.
Another witness, 60-year-old Titus Ngonyo Gandi, gave an emotional account of how he lost five family members in the tragedy, including his son, a GSU officer.
Gandi said he first noticed troubling behaviour from his wife in 2019, when she began preaching against schooling and warned neighbours against obtaining government documents such as birth certificates and identity cards. He told the court he later buried his wife, two children, a grandchild and a daughter-in-law.
A Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officer, Paul Oguta, testified that he was deployed to Shakahola after a report emerged that two children had been killed and buried secretly in the area. Upon arrival, he said, officers found several people starving beneath trees.
Oguta told the court he was assigned to oversee post-mortem examinations of victims taken to the Malindi Mortuary, while other officers conducted exhumations. He said he attended 88 post-mortem sessions and submitted the reports as evidence.
The hearing continues.
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