Witnesses narrate starvation and denial of education in Shakahola case
Among those who testified was Dominic Kahindi Mwakudza, who narrated how police approached him over his brother, Felix Katana, who had four children.
The Tononoka Children’s Court in Mombasa on Wednesday heard chilling accounts from five witnesses in the trial of preacher Paul Mackenzie and 34 others facing charges of child cruelty, torture and denial of education in connection with the Shakahola massacre.
The proceedings were overseen by principal magistrate Nelly Chepchirchir.
Among those who testified was Dominic Kahindi Mwakudza, who narrated how police approached him over his brother, Felix Katana, who had four children. Officers were investigating why the children were not attending school.
“Katana told me he had chosen not to educate them, saying education had no value. I advised him that it is unlawful to deny children the right to schooling. I even tried to explore ways to assist him, since our own father had taken us to school,” Mwakudza told the court.
He added that he later reported the matter to authorities, leading to the children being taken in by the children’s department.
He revealed that Katana’s eldest child had been withdrawn from secondary school while in Form Two, while the others were removed from primary school during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Another witness, Anne Kauchi, described how she lost two siblings in the Shakahola tragedy. She said she once belonged to Mackenzie’s Good News International Church but walked away after he began preaching that education was evil.
“I chose to rebel against Mackenzie’s radical teachings,” she said.
Kauchi told the court that her mother, Judith Farasi, however, remained loyal to the cult leader. She pulled her younger children out of school and relocated to Shakahola forest.
Kauchi recalled that her mother often called her for financial assistance. In February 2023, after the birth of her first child, she visited her mother and interacted with her siblings.
Soon after, her mother told her they would no longer communicate. Months later, reports of deaths from starvation in Shakahola emerged, and DNA results confirmed that her mother and sister, Elinah, were among the 429 victims.
Senior Sergeant Cyrus Irungu also testified, recounting how two men reported that their relatives were missing and being starved inside the forest. The missing family included Emily Wanje, her husband, Isaack Ngala, and their children. Irungu said he forwarded the complaint to Lango Baya OCS Hamara Hassan, who instructed him and two other officers to accompany the men.
They drove six kilometres and trekked another nine through the forest before reaching Ngala’s homestead, where they encountered an elderly woman holding a frail young boy.
