Pastor Mackenzie Paid Bond for Follower Charged with Denying Children Education, Court Hears
A witness in the manslaughter case against Pastor Paul Mackenzie testified that the preacher paid the bond for his father, a member of Mackenzie’s Good News International Church, after he was arrested and charged for withdrawing his children from school.
The case relates to the notorious 2023 Shakahola cult tragedy in Malindi, Kilifi County, where Mackenzie allegedly instructed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death in the belief it would grant them access to heaven. Over 400 people are believed to have died in this tragic incident.
The controversial preacher also reportedly discouraged his followers from attending school, labeling it ungodly, according to witness accounts.
Jimmy Mganga, the witness, testified that his father stopped sending his two children—one in Class Three and the other in Form Four— to school. Mganga reported the matter to the Ministry of Education, which led to his father’s arrest and charges in Malindi Court.
Mganga further explained, “He was later released on a Ksh. 10,000 bond,” and added that Mackenzie had paid the bond for his father. Mganga also stated that his family turned against him for reporting the matter, with his father telling him to never approach him again.
Mganga recalled that his father went to Shakahola under the guise of buying land, but later returned to take his three daughters, leaving Mganga and his two brothers behind. He shared that Mackenzie had officiated his parents’ wedding in 2014, was close friends with his father, and frequently visited their home.
Mganga, who attended Mackenzie’s church in 2009, eventually left due to the church’s doctrines.
Mackenzie is currently in police custody, facing terrorism charges alongside 94 other co-defendants. The group also faces charges of murder, manslaughter, child torture, and cruelty in separate cases, which they deny.
The remains of more than 440 people have been uncovered from Shakahola forest, with autopsies revealing that while starvation was the main cause of death, some victims were also strangled, beaten, or suffocated. Additionally, some bodies were found to have had their organs removed, according to previous court document