Pastor Mackenzie paid bond for follower charged with denying children education, court told

A witness in the manslaughter case against Paul Mackenzie says the preacher paid bond for his father, a parishioner at the pastor’s Good News International Church, after being arrested and charged for taking his children off school.

In the infamous 2023 Shakahola cult  in Malindi, Kilifi County, Mackenzie ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so that they could go to heaven. Over 400 people died.

The controversial preacher also discouraged followers from attending school, calling it ungodly, according to witness accounts.

Jimmy Mganga on Tuesday testified that his father stopped sending two of his children to school. He said they were in class three and form four when they dropped out.

“When I realized my two siblings weren't going to school, I reported the matter to the Ministry of Education, and my father was arrested and charged in Malindi Court,” Mganga told the court.

“He was later released on a Ksh.10,000 bond,” he said, adding that that his father was released after Mackenzie paid the bond.

“I could not follow up on my sibling’s education because my family turned against me, saying I want to imprison my father. He himself told me to never set foot near him.”

Mganga said his father went to Shakahola saying he wanted to buy a piece of land, only to return at take his three daughters with him, leaving Mganga and his two brothers behind.

He said Mackenzie presided over his parents’ wedding in 2014, was his father’s friend and would often visit their home to check on him.

Mganga said he attended Mackenzie's church in 2009 but left because of its doctrine.

Mackenzie is in police custody and has been charged with terrorism with 94 co-defendants.

The 55 men and 40 women also face charges of murder, manslaughter, as well as child torture and cruelty in separate cases. They deny any wrongdoing.

The remains of more than 440 people have been unearthed from Shakahola forest, where autopsies have found that while starvation appeared to be the main cause of death, some of the victims were strangled, beaten, or suffocated.

Previous court documents also said that some of the bodies had had their organs removed.