Paul Mackenzie Stories

Another pastor arrested in Kilifi as authorities crack down on rogue preachers
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 30, 2025

According to Kiinge, security agencies have intensified intelligence operations at the grassroots level, including scrutiny of religious leaders’ qual...

Shakahola cult: How Mackenzie forged documents to register Good News Church
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 30, 2025

The prosecution presented five witnesses before the Shanzu Law Courts in the ongoing trial involving Mackenzie and 95 co-accused persons, who face cha...

Witness narrates how Mackenzie distorted Bible verses to defend deadly Shakahola fasting cult
Lucy Mumbi  |  Sep 23, 2025

During Tuesday’s court session, the witness testified that Mackenzie cited passages from the Book of Revelation and reinterpreted them as a countdown...

Kilifi closes 11 churches over radicalisation, lack of registration
Lucy Mumbi  |  Sep 22, 2025

The crackdown follows the deaths of more than 484 people linked to cult-related activities in Malindi, including over 450 followers of the Good News I...

Chakama residents demand subdivision of 50,000-acre ranch linked to cult activities
Rachael Mutabasi  |  Sep 20, 2025

Residents, led by the local Chakama Pastors’ Fellowship, have linked the vast unoccupied land to cult activity, arguing it has become a breeding groun...

Kwa Binzaro cult suspects held for 60 days as investigators uncover grisly graves
Lucy Mumbi  |  Sep 18, 2025

Detectives told the court they would use the extra time to sort through 102 commingled remains already recovered, carry out post-mortem examinations o...

Rescue of starving boy sheds light on Shakahola forest tragedy
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 18, 2025

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 Maduka...

Shakahola trial hears more harrowing testimonies of starvation and abuse
Lucy Mumbi  |  Sep 16, 2025

Government Pathologist Richard Njoroge, who performed post-mortems on four bodies recovered from mass graves in Shakahola, described the grim state of...

Kwa Binzaro cult suspects scattered bodies across 400 acres to outwit investigators, court told
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 15, 2025

Investigators reported that the 51 days initially granted by the court had been severely undermined by the suspects’ methods, which appeared designed...

Families ravaged by tragedy as Kwa Binzaro mass graves reveal grim truth
Maureen Kinyanjui  |  Sep 13, 2025

The Kwa Binzaro tragedy, much like Shakahola before it, has left families shattered,  parents mourning children, and children left without parents. Fo...

WhatsApp messages reveal how Mackenzie persuaded his followers to abandon homes for Shakahola
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 05, 2025

The officer said the bulk of the material centred on fasting, prophecy, the Antichrist, the Beast, the New World Order and repeated references to the...

Grieving father testifies on losing 12 family members in Shakahola massacre
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 04, 2025

Titus Ngonyo Gandi narrated how his wife, Esther Birya Masha, drew their two sons, Harry and Isaack Ngala, into Mackenzie’s cult.

Children’s Officer recounts how minors were rescued from Paul Mackenzie’s followers
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 04, 2025

Omar Mohamed, appearing as the 58th prosecution witness, recounted how the minors were discovered during investigations into the conduct of followers...

IG Douglas Kanja faces grim reality of Kwa Binzaro exhumations
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 04, 2025

The air was heavy with the smell of decay, yellow tape hung loosely from tree trunks marking exhumation sites, and exhausted officers trudged through...

11 suspects arrested in Kwa Binzaro cult probe, Police IG Kanja says many victims are non-locals
Lucy Mumbi  |  Sep 03, 2025

Police IG Kanja revealed that the majority of the victims are believed to be non-locals.

Grief-stricken families relive pain as court hears Shakahola child torture case
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 03, 2025

The prosecution argued that such testimonies illustrate how Mackenzie’s radical sermons compelled parents to isolate their families, starve their chil...

Prison boss dismisses Paul Mackenzie's alleged poisoning plot at Shimo la Tewa
Farhiya Hussein  |  Sep 03, 2025

Abdi Willy Adan said only some of the other suspects had refused food since Wednesday, while Mackenzie’s last hunger strike was recorded back in Febru...

Kwa Binzaro exhumations halted as 32 bodies are recovered, families urged to give DNA samples
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 29, 2025

The next phase will involve post-mortems and DNA profiling of both the bodies and the body parts recovered. Onyancha appealed to relatives of missing...

Police admit Shakahola lessons not fully applied after Kwa Binzaro cult deaths
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 29, 2025

He emphasised that there had been a disconnect in collaboration among agencies, including the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), local admi...

Witness reveals how Mackenzie’s Shakahola church starved dozens, killing children and families
Rachael Mutabasi  |  Aug 27, 2025

The witness revealed that she lost all seven of her children in Shakahola, where followers were forced to abandon schooling, medical care, and even ba...

Kwa Binzaro cult tragedy lays bare State’s broken promises after Shakahola
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 27, 2025

After Shakahola, the then Interior Cabinet Secretary and now Deputy President, Prof Kithure Kindiki, assured the nation that never again would such a...

Kwa Binzaro cult probe shifts to suspects’ phones and bank records
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 26, 2025

Detectives allege the suspects channelled funds into renting multiple houses in Malindi, which they used as holding spaces for victims before moving t...

Woman named prime suspect in Kwa Binzaro deaths as 11 arrested, 13 bodies exhumed so far
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 25, 2025

She added that detectives are also seeking to establish how the woman acquired the land in question, which is part of Chakama Ranch.

Shakahola Horror: How children were forced to starve, 'prepared to meet Jesus'
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 25, 2025

At Shakahola, he said, children were the first to be starved, followed by women and the elderly. Burials were carried out secretly but celebrated as w...

13 more graves found in Kwa Binzaro as death toll rises amid cult fears
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 15, 2025

The grim discovery brings the total number of graves identified in the area to 21, following weeks of reports about unexplained disappearances believe...

Shakahola survivors detail horrors of starvation, brutality in court
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 15, 2025

His followers were instructed to fast without food or water until death. The chilling plan, they testified, had an order: children first, then women,...

Activists alarmed as Kwa Binzaro ‘Shakahola 2’ exhumations delayed, warn against mass grave
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 14, 2025

The fresh graves, now being linked to what activists are calling “Shakahola 2”, are believed to hold victims of a similar deadly cult associated with...

Shakahola Massacre trial opens in Mombasa amid harrowing details of alleged child murders
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 14, 2025

The case, initially handled at the Malindi High Court, was transferred to Mombasa following a directive by Chief Justice Martha Koome, citing the scal...

DNA backlog leaves 300 Shakahola victims unburied two years after massacre
Lucy Mumbi  |  Aug 13, 2025

Uncovered two years ago, the Shakahola tragedy saw 453 bodies exhumed from shallow graves, yet despite collecting 333 DNA samples, only 66 victims hav...

Shakahola murder trial adjourned as prosecution cites new evidence
Farhiya Hussein  |  Aug 12, 2025

State Counsel Alex Ndiema and Victor Simbi told the court that investigators had uncovered new leads which could result in the arrest of more suspects...

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