Mobile phones have become one of humanity’s most trusted companions, connecting families globally, carrying our conversations, memories and even our deepest secrets in the palm of a hand.
The device has simplified life, making communication instant and limitless, but for controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie, his mobile phones turned from a companion to his greatest enemy, a silent witness to an atrocity that shocked the nation.
During proceedings before the Tononoka Children’s Court, where controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie and 35 others are accused of torturing children and denying them the right to education, digital footprints became central in exposing how the doomsday preacher lured hundreds of his followers into Shakahola forest to starve to their death.
Chief Inspector Joseph Kolum, a senior digital forensics officer with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), told the court that when he cracked open Mackenzie’s mobile phones, loaded with multiple SIM cards, he stumbled upon chilling digital trails.
Preacher Paul Mackenzie is escorted to the Mombasa Law Courts on July 30, 2025.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
The details revealed how gullible members of the Good News International Church (GNI) were drawn into the wilderness from the safety of their homes across the country.
Using the Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED), investigators generated thousands of WhatsApp conversations between Mackenzie and his followers. The data included exchanges before and during their migration into the forest and their life in the wilderness.
Inspector Kolum said he examined Mackenzie’s Nokia and Itel handsets and unearthed more than 74,000 pages of WhatsApp chats dating back to September 2020. These messages captured Mackenzie’s unrelenting campaign of persuasion.
“The data revealed recurring conversations about fasting, the Antichrist, the Beast, the coming New World Order and the number 666,” Mr Kolum testified before Principal Magistrate Nelly Chepchirchir.
The court heard that Mackenzie consistently warned his followers of satanic forces he claimed had infiltrated the highest offices of power around the world.
He repeatedly invoked the “New World Order” conspiracy theory, which alleges a plot by global elites to establish an authoritarian world government.
Prosecutors Jami Yamina, Ngina Mutua, Betty Rubia and Biasha Khalifa told the court through this witness that Mackenzie had rebranded his church as a “wilderness mission”, convincing his followers that salvation no longer lay in their homes but in Shakahola.
Through his messages, Mackenzie portrayed the forest as the only holy refuge, a chosen place to await Christ’s return.
“The church is no longer in your homes, it is in the wilderness,” the witness quoted Mackenzie as repeatedly writing.
Detectives and residents load bodies onto a police vehicle after digging them out of mass graves on land owned by cult leader Paul Mackenzie at Shakahola village in Kilifi County on April 23, 2023.
Photo credit: Wachira Mwangi | Nation Media Group
Declaring his mission on earth complete, Mackenzie urged his followers to relocate without delay, abandoning ordinary routines for a promised eternity.
The chats did not stop at relocation. They revealed Mackenzie’s interference in family decisions, including instructions to parents to withdraw children from school.
One mother told him her child suffered “spiritual attacks” when dressed in uniform, to which Mackenzie advised her to stop sending the child to school.
He also discouraged medical treatment, instructing mothers through WhatsApp messages to avoid hospitals even when their children were sick.
According to the prosecution, Mackenzie recast every aspect of daily life such as education, healthcare and family as obstacles to “true faith”, while glorifying lifeless living.
The phones also exposed how Mackenzie monetised his faith. Followers pledged financial contributions, sending him money to purchase land inside Shakahola forest, where they were to settle.
Recovered data included audio sermons, PDF documents and YouTube links spreading his apocalyptic gospel after his Malindi-based Furunzi GNI Church was shut down.
The analysis of the device showed followers sought guidance on when to move, to the forest with Mackenzie responding that there should be no delay in doing so as the end was near.
“He discouraged women from plaiting their hair, wearing wigs or ornaments,” the witness added.
The court heard that these retrieved WhatsApp messages and digital footprints centred on presenting Shakahola as the ideal place to wait for the return of Christ and the end of the world.
What followed was mass starvation, leaving shallow graves and unanswered questions across the country.
The extracted digital footprints linked Mackenzie’s preaching to biblical prophecies of judgement day. His posts focused on the end of the world, impending doom and the dangers of science. He criticised government initiatives such as the Huduma Namba, calling it “the mark of the beast”.
The court also heard that Mackenzie closed his GNI church after nearly a decade of operation, claiming it was time for his followers to rehearse fasting in the wilderness. Hundreds of his sermons remain accessible online.
“The theme of 666 and Antichrist teachings dominated his end-time messages. He claimed God had given him power to open the church and later instructed him to close it and return its registration details to the government,” the witness testified.
According to evidence presented, Mackenzie used extreme ideology to prepare his followers for the second coming of Christ in Shakahola, which he described as the “wilderness” or “jangwani” for fasting.
“The evidence from his mobile phone shows conversations with those already there. As a result, people starved to death in the hope of meeting Jesus,” the court was told.
Mackenzie incited his followers against government services such as schools, hospitals and social programmes, insisting education was ungodly and satanic. This narrative convinced many across the country, with devastating consequences in Shakahola.
Through his lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, Mackenzie has denied the claims, maintaining his innocence and insisting he is being unfairly prosecuted.
He and his 35 co-accused face charges of cruelty, torture and denial of education to children in connection with the massacre.
