'I saw trouble coming': Shakahola whistleblower speaks

Ms Mwaura, a whistleblower whose Facebook post about the Shakahola massacre was ignored, was not a mere church member but the driving force behind the recording, editing, and packaging of Mackenzie’s sermons for broadcast on Times TV and for sale to believers and outsiders attracted to his message. 

She was the author of a post that circulated in November 2022, just four months before the Shakahola deaths were uncovered. In the post, shared in a Facebook group called Malindi Kenya, she claimed that Mackenzie was killing people and burying them on his farm.

Ms Mwaura, a daughter of one of the former GNI preachers, explained to the court on Monday what she meant and where she got information about people dying in Shakahola and being buried on Mackenzie’s farm. She said she made the post hoping authorities would act to prevent the “killings” on the property.

“I got that information from my father, that people were dying on the farm. He used to tell me what that man (Mackenzie) is doing, killing people and no one is helping. I heard people were dying and they were not allowed to leave,” she said.

Her father, a pastor who also transported flowers from Nairobi to Shakahola, had fallen out with Mackenzie over ideology during their stay in the forest.

She tagged the DCI in her post, seeking intervention, but nothing was done. By the following day, the post had been pulled down. This was after Mackenzie's to visit the Malindi Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) office, seeking help to trace, arrest and take legal action against the author.

“All I got was a threat from Mackenzie’s people. Two people contacted me after I posted. I could identify their voices. They said I didn’t know what I was posting and that they would come for me,” she said.

According to the witness, the caller was a GNI member who acted as Mackenzie’s link to the outside world, keeping him updated on social media activity.

“I did not honour police summons because I feared I could be a victim of enforced disappearance,” she said.

The witness said her father finally parted ways with Mackenzie when the preacher allegedly began “killing” people.

“Mackenzie was giving orders to his juniors to do the ‘job’ for him. There was no rapture in Shakahola, so he killed them,” she added, while being cross-examined by Mackenzie’s lawyer.

Church membership

Testifying virtually via a video link before the Magistrate's Court, where Mackenzie and 95 others face 238 manslaughter charges, Ms Mwaura explained how she became a member of the church.

“I was 14 years old when I joined the church. The whole family attended the GNI Makongeni branch in Nairobi. While there, we were told that work, education, modern medicine and using beauty products to enhance appearance were all evil and against God’s plan,” she said.

According to the witness, members were taught to worship God only, as they were being prepared for the second coming of Jesus Christ,a popular belief in Christianity. 

“So we were to be found pure. That was the basis of the teachings,” she said, while being guided by prosecutors.

When schools closed that year, Ms Mwaura dropped out and did not proceed to Form Two. Because her parents were members of the church, she had little to worry about and was not pressed to explain her decision.

Still, her father had something to say, though he was not harsh, only cautioning her to be sure she would not regret it later.

“Are you sure you want to drop out of school? Will you not blame me in future?” Ms Mwaura recalled her father asking. He did not insist, since he was one of the church preachers and was already familiar with the “education is evil” gospel.

Ms Mwaura appeared to believe her parents failed her by not being firm and by easily allowing her to drop out at such a young age.

“But I was just 14 years old!  Ningechapwa ningerudi shuleni (If I had been caned, I would have returned to school),” she remarked. 

She told the court that Mackenzie later learnt she had dropped out of school, and this excited the doomsday preacher. 

“Mackenzie was now using me as an example while preaching against education. He would mention me, saying that I dropped out of school but was now the video editor at Times TV,” she said.

After leaving school, Ms Mwaura acquired video shooting and editing skills, becoming an important figure in the production of Mackenzie’s end-times messages. Extra copies of CDs and DVDs were made, and people placed orders through the preacher.

But as she grew older, the witness said she began feeling uneasy and questioning the direction of the preaching.

“I had become an adult. I felt tired of those nonsense end-times messages. That is how I left the church,” she said.

Ms Mwaura also recalled events during the COVID-19 pandemic when the church was being closed and followers were being moved to the Shakahola forest.

“I was pissed off when Mackenzie sold church equipment that members had contributed money to buy. Why would he not refund their money? He even sold the car and equipment, saying there was no church. This was during and after COVID-19,” she said.

Body identification

Last week, a grieving mother whose daughter and three grandchildren vanished in the Shakahola forest told the court that  she will not accept unrecognisable remains, insisting she still hopes to see them alive. Jacinta Mzame, 67, said she does not wish to be given a body that does not belong to her daughter.

Her daughter, Mary Mboli, her husband Newton Kimathi alias Kim, and their three children aged three two and one  disappeared after joining Mackenzie’s  church.

Another child had earlier died of pneumonia after the couple refused hospital treatment, following Mackenzie’s teachings that medicine and education were evil. 

After the minor’s burial in Meru, the family moved to Kilifi, where Mackenzie housed them at Shakahola. Kim later sold family land in Meru and gave the proceeds to Mackenzie, who allocated them land in return. Communication soon stopped. 

The last contact was in February 2023, before reports of deaths in Shakahola emerged. She had given her DNA samples, which yielded positive results for her daughter, but she has refused to accept the outcome and still hopes her daughter and grandchildren are alive.

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