Shocking testimonies have emerged in the murder trial of controversial Kenyan preacher Paul Mackenzie, accused alongside 29 co-defendants of orchestrating the deaths of hundreds of followers in Kilifi County’s Shakahola forest.
Before Lady Justice Diana Kadveza at the Mombasa High Court, three witnesses, including minors under witness protection, described a regime of religious indoctrination, enforced starvation and physical abuse that, they said, claimed the lives of children and adults alike.
One witness said Mackenzie, referred to by followers as “Mtumishi” (The Servant), ordered believers to “fast until death” in a sequence starting with children, then women, then men, and finally himself. He allegedly taught that “Jesus was not coming” and that followers must instead “go to Jesus through fasting to death.”
Those who resisted were beaten. Victims, including infants and schoolchildren, were reportedly buried in the forest, a practice followers called “weddings.”
A rescued minor told the court he was denied food and water for days and moved to another location because he was “not dying fast enough.” Under the watch of Mackenzie’s guards, the child said, he was prayed over so that “the spirit of asking for food and water” would leave him. His younger brother, he testified, died during forced fasting and was buried in a shallow grave by Mackenzie’s men.
Another witness recalled gatherings under “Mitola trees” where Mackenzie preached, warning followers against breaking the fast. They noted that the accused now appeared “healthier than before,” a stark contrast to the emaciated victims exhumed from the site.
The case, one of Kenya’s worst mass killing trials in recent history, resumes on 25 August 2025.
