Shakahola Cult Trial; Malindi Suspects Testimony Horrifying

By Julius Mwabonje

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

A 52-year-old witness has testified on how a suspect in the Shakahola massacre murder case trial lured her daughter into the controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie’s Good News International church.

Hamisi Abdala Mohamed, a Muslim by faith, said that he was initially opposed to her daughter marrying Julius Thuva, a Mackenzie co-accused because of religious faith differences but he let her go when the daughter insisted.

Appearing before Justice Wendi Kagendo, Mohamed told the court that Julius Thuva who was the fifth accused person in the case married his daughter without his consent in 2017 and that they had two children together.

“I discovered that Thuva had married my daughter and they attended Mackenzie’s church at Furunzi area. She had converted to Christianity without my consent,” he said.

He added that he lost touch with her daughter Nuru Hamisi for a very long period until the Shakahola tragedy occurred when he was told that the suspect and her daughter together with their children had moved to Shakahola.

“Initially I never knew where they worshipped but after sometime when I visited his home, I was told they had gone to Mackenzie’s church.

We as a family started searching for our daughter and we even visited Shakahola with her photograph and shopkeepers told us that they used to see her shop at the center and they could be dropped by boda boda riders along the Malindi- Salagate road and vanish in the Shakahola thicket,” he added.

“When Shakahola broke out, I went to the police station and the officers directed me to Malindi Sub County hospital where some survivors had been admitted but we could not find our daughter, the officers later called us to identify suspects in custody and she wasn’t among them.”

The court is set to visit the forest and the previous residences of victims and the accused persons lived before travelling to Shakahola.

Also to be visited is Kwabinzaro village where investigators second accused person Sharleen Temba Anindo alias Ann, and other suspects continued with the indoctrination and the visit is expected to give the court a clearer understanding of how the alleged activities were organised, including where victims were accommodated, separated and held before being taken to forest camps.

Prosecutors argue that physically examining the locations will help the court test witness testimonies describing a system in which followers were allegedly isolated from their families, instructed to fast, and prevented from leaving.

Prosecutors have presented evidence linking Shakahola, where hundreds of bodies were recovered in 2023, with Kwa Bi Nzaro, where more than 50 deaths were later reported.

The case has drawn national attention following the discovery of mass graves in Shakahola, where more than 450 bodies were recovered from the forest while the Kwabinzaro proceedings relate to another set of deaths, with the state charging Mackenzie and five others over the alleged killing of 23 children.

Other accused persons include Kahindi Kazungu Garama, Tom Ochieng Mkonwe, Julius Thuva Luwali, Johnson Gona Richard, Charles Mutua Musee and James Kazungu Kahindi.