'He is innocent': Family of controversial Malindi pastor Paul Mackenzie speaks out

The family of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie has come out in his defence even as the body count from his cult rises.

His younger brother, Robert Mackenzie, speaking exclusively to Citizen TV, says Paul stopped preaching in 2019, and had taken up farming, and is therefore not responsible for the deaths in Shakahola.

"He started out as a taxi operator in Malindi; an occupation he held for a couple of years before receiving his spiritual calling," Robert said.

He added that the preaching bug that bit his brother saw him (Paul) try his hand at ministering in different churches within Malindi but differences between him and the founders of the churches proved to be too much and he was kicked out of three churches.

Paul soon after  founded the Good News International (GNI) church.

The older Mackenzie’s ministry at GNI soon grew in numbers and in controversy, through his teachings that encouraged congregants to amongst other things shun modern education and health seeking.

His family says practising those teachings was never mandatory.

"My children go to school and they go to hospital and Mackenzie has never forced me to have them do otherwise," said Robert.

"If you don't take your children to school then that's on you and not Mackenzie."

The family denies that Mackenzie fled his Malindi-based church to settle in Shakahola forest, instead noting that he told them that his God-ordained mission had ended in 2019, and that he was settling down to farm in the fields that have turned into the theatre of tragedy.

Despite the overwhelming number of bodies recovered from the fields in the last few days, the pastor's family is convinced that their brother is the target of malice.

They say Paul was a model child growing up, kind to a fault and incapable of the crimes he is now accused of.

"I don't agree with the accusations. I know my brother well; there's no way he would kill and bury a person," said Robert.