A 17-year-old minor yesterday told a Mombasa court that suspected Shakahola massacre mastermind, Paul Mackenzie, facilitated the defilement of minors and sanctioned beatings of his followers by his close associates and bodyguards.

 The minor, who is under a witness protection program, was testifying against Mackenzie and 94 other suspects in the ongoing trial for manslaughter.

 He told Mombasa Chief Magistrate Alex Ithuku that after hundreds of children were forced to drop out of school, having been told that education was evil, they began attending Bible classes at Mackenzie’s Good News International Church in Malindi.

 “During the Bible teachings, my younger sister, who had also dropped out of school, was defiled by one of the church elders inside the church,” he stated.

Defilement reports

 The minor informed the court that his mother’s efforts to report the defilement to the police were thwarted by Pastor Mackenzie, who stopped her from pursuing the matter.

 “Mackenzie informed my mother that the matter should not be reported to the police and that it would be settled outside court,” he informed the court.

 He went on to narrate that following his sister’s defilement, he opted to leave Mackenzie’s church. However, his mother, working closely with one of Mackenzie’s guards, kidnapped him while he was asleep and took him back to the church.

 “In the wee hours of one morning in 2020, I was woken up by my mother, who was accompanied by a man named Robert. They managed to tie my hands and frog-marched me to the church. Once inside, I was beaten. I will never forget the beating I received from that man,” he stated while pointing at a suspect before the court.

 He told the court that inside the Bible classes, there were more than seventy children, most of whom had dropped out of school following Mackenzie’s preaching.

 “He often preached from the Book of Corinthians and would insist that the Word of the Lord was against education and medical treatment,” he stated.

 “Upon dropping out of school, he organized for us to attend Bible classes at his Malindi church. We would attend the classes alongside my 13-year-old sister. When Mackenzie preached, we believed him, and we would attend Bible study from Monday to Friday,” he stated.

 The minor informed the court that contrary to Mackenzie’s preaching that children should not attend school, his (Mackenzie) four school-going children attended St Andrews School, a private institution in Malindi.  The state witness, who was born a Muslim and converted to Christianity at the age of 11 following Mackenzie’s preaching, further told the court that whenever they fell sick, they were never taken to the hospital for treatment.

 “When any one of us became sick, we were only prayed for. Our parents never took us to the hospital; we held prayers as a family and believed we were healed,” he stated.

 He further informed the court that his mother, a staunch follower of Mackenzie, relocated to Shakahola in 2020, and during her stay there, she barely communicated with her family.

 “She began by selling our house furniture and other household items. We all thought she had relocated to a nearby farm; we however discovered later that she left for Shakahola,” he informed the court.

 He went on to reveal that he last saw his mother in February 2023 and had phone communication with her twice during her stay inside the Shakahola forest.

 “There have been efforts to establish her whereabouts since 2023 and our search has not yielded any fruits. We have viewed all the bodies that were exhumed from the Shakahola graves but she is still missing. l had my DNA taken and we are still waiting for her body to be found since during our interactions with Mackenzie, he informed me that my mother had died but he has never given any details about her death,” the minor told the court.

 Meanwhile, a police officer struggled to clarify his past interactions with Mackenzie, during his testimony in court.

Chief Inspector Hamara Hassan, who served as the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) at Langobaya Police Station during the period in question, offered conflicting statements about his familiarity with Mackenzie and his knowledge of the horrifying events that took place in Shakahola Forest.

In his sworn testimony, Hassan claimed that he first learned of Mackenzie on April 1, 2023, when reports of deaths within Shakahola Forest surfaced. He stated that he was part of the team involved in the subsequent rescue operations.