Shakahola child victims left with trauma, nightmares – court told

A children’s court in Tononoka, Mombasa, has resumed the hearing of the Shakahola massacre involving child victims, according to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP).

The matter, involving Pastor Paul Mackenzie and 38 other accused persons who are parents of the victims, was presided over by the court’s Principal Magistrate Nelly Chepchirchir.

Five witnesses testified before Chepchirchir, among them psychologists and counselors who explained to the court how they were asked to provide psychosocial support to the children who had been rescued from the Shakahola forest.

According to the witnesses, the support aided in addressing trauma, mental, emotional and social issues that stemmed from the Shakahola massacre.

“We conducted multiple group therapy sessions with the minors who had presented trauma and traumatic grief-related symptoms in order to gain their trust,” one of the witnesses said.

The counselors narrated how deeply the experiences in Shakahola affected the children, with some said to be experiencing bad dreams and nightmares, equating the experiences at times when they felt angry, shameful and experienced cruelty and fear.

Majority of the children seen by the counselors never attended school because of Pastor Mackenzie’s preaching on his television platform, where his preachings were against education, terming schools as “ungodly” and further teaching that even Jesus never went to school.

“My wife and I disagreed after she started following the preaching on Time TV, which is alleged to have been teaching against education and going to the hospital”, Charles Anjanja, a boda boda rider from Banana, Kiambu told the court as a witness.

He further mentioned that his wife left their hometown of Eldoret bound for Mombasa, with all four children, later returning with only three.

Anjanja then said that three days later, his wife left for Mombasa with two of the remaining children and he never heard from her again, until her demise.

According to the ODPP, Mackenzie and his 38 co-accused were charged with 17 counts of offences under several constitutional acts, including the 2012 Children’s Act, Prevention of Torture Act 2017, and the Basic Education Act 2013.

The charges include two counts of subjecting a child to torture with an alternative count of assault causing actual bodily harm, nine charges of cruelty to a child, and six counts of infringing a child's right to education.