When 54-year-old Hamisi Abdalla Mohamed hired Julius Thuva Luwali to transport farm produce from his home to the market, he never imagined that the same man would one day marry his daughter against his wishes, convert her from Islam to Christianity and ultimately lead her into the world of preacher Paul Mackenzie, from where she would vanish without a trace.
Mohamed had known Thuva for nearly two years before his daughter disappeared. A grocer at Malindi Market, he regularly relied on the tuk-tuk operator to ferry vegetables from his Sabaki home to town.
Over time, Thuva became a familiar face around the family homestead.
"I used to call him and he would come to my home and transport them at a fee using his tuk-tuk," Mohamed told the High Court in Malindi.
Paul Mackenzie at Shanzu Law Courts in Mombasa on November 20, 2023.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The frequent visits allowed Thuva to become acquainted with Mohamed's children, including Nuru Hamisi, who was born around 1995 and attended Sabaki Primary School before proceeding to Kibokoni Secondary School.
As Nuru transitioned into adulthood and her father prepared to further her education, she informed her family that she had secured a job at a hotel in Malindi. Every morning she travelled to town and returned home in the evening. But gradually, her behaviour began to change.
What initially appeared to be occasional absences became a pattern. Her father said she would sometimes fail to return home for several days, explaining that work commitments had forced her to spend nights at a female friend's house.
"One day, I became angry at this trend and, upon questioning her, she told me that she had been spending the nights away in Thuva's residence because he wanted to marry her," Mohamed testified.
The revelation stunned the family. As a devout Muslim, Mohamed said he had raised all his children in the Islamic faith and hoped his daughter would marry within the religion. He immediately informed her that any marriage between her and Thuva would require the latter to convert to Islam.
"Being a Muslim and having strictly raised my children in the same religion, I reminded Nuru of the Islamic requirement that Thuva, who was a Christian, convert to Islam before their marriage," he told the court.
The conversation, however, came too late, as Nuru was already deeply involved in Christianity and had become a devoted member of Mackenzie's church.
Around the same period, Nuru left home and eventually married Thuva, effectively ending her father's efforts to influence the relationship.
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
The marriage also marked the end of Mohamed's professional relationship with the man he had trusted for years to transport his produce and family members.
"I eventually got to know that she had married Thuva, thus marking the end of my hiring the said man to transport my family or wares to the market," he said.
Seeking to salvage relations between the two families, Mohamed reached out to Thuva's father, who worked at a restaurant in Malindi, hoping to organise a meeting that would help establish an amicable relationship between the newlyweds and their relatives.
The effort bore no fruit, leaving Mohamed disappointed. According to Mohamed, Thuva's father informed him that his son had repeatedly ignored requests to attend such a meeting.
As time passed, Mohamed began learning more about the religious environment in which his daughter now lived. Although he had always known Thuva was a Christian, he had never known where he worshipped.
"I learnt that he fellowshipped at Mackenzie's Good News International Ministries church in the Furunzi area of Malindi and further that he occasionally preached there," he testified.
Daughter didn't pick calls
The discovery worried the family, particularly because Nuru had become increasingly distant after her marriage. Phone calls from her mother and sisters frequently went unanswered, and she rarely visited home.
"We made several efforts to reach out to Nuru through phone calls from my wife and daughters because she did not pick calls and neither did she return home, even for visits," Mohamed recalled.
Even so, bits of information occasionally reached the family. They learnt that Nuru and Thuva had two children together, first a boy and later a girl.
They also learnt that the couple had relocated from Furunzi in Malindi to Thuva's rural home in Witu, Lamu County. Mohamed said Nuru brought the children home on occasion, allowing him to see his grandchildren.
"I was not opposed to the payment of dowry, but I did not chase Thuva away when he came home seeking negotiations. I only wanted this done according to Islamic law on marriage," he clarified when asked why he allegedly chased Thuva away when he visited to discuss dowry.
After that move, communication deteriorated further. By 2022, Nuru had become completely unreachable.
Then came the shocking reports from Shakahola. In early 2023, news broke that Mackenzie's followers were starving themselves to death in the belief that fasting would enable them to meet Jesus.
Locals from Shakahola Centre help dig up graves at Shakahola Forest part of the 800 acres linked to Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church in this past photo taken on June 6, 2023.
Photo credit: File I Nation Media Group
As investigators uncovered mass graves in Shakahola Forest, Mohamed could not ignore the possibility that his daughter and son-in-law might be involved. His fears intensified when he received a call from a member of Thuva's family.
"During the same period, Francis Konde told me that his brother Thuva and my daughter Nuru were missing," Mohamed testified.
The information confirmed the family's worst fears. By then, both Nuru and Thuva had become unreachable by phone, and Mohamed already knew they were followers of Mackenzie's ministry.
"Since I already knew that my daughter Nuru and her husband Thuva, who were both unreachable by phone, were followers of Mackenzie's church, my family commenced deliberate efforts to search for Nuru," he told the court.
He said the DNA samples they provided after the Shakahola tragedy was uncovered had yielded no results.
"I hate Thuva because he is here alive and my daughter is nowhere to be seen. I want him to tell me where she is," he told the court.
Mohamed said he had not seen Thuva since the tragedy emerged until he saw him in court on Monday during the hearing.
"What I want is to be told where my daughter is and how I can get her back," he said.
The search for her whereabouts has continued for years, driven by a father's determination to discover what became of the daughter who first drifted away through a relationship, then through religious conversion, and finally into a movement that became synonymous with one of Kenya's deadliest cult-related tragedies.
The story of Salama Masha, another witness, was equally tragic. She told the court that she had been in Shakahola Forest before escaping and returning to her parents' home.
"People came to my house to condole with me because I had left my husband in the forest where hundreds of bodies had been exhumed, so it was assumed he was dead," she told the court.
However, Garama resurfaced two years later and the couple reconnected and resumed their lives together.
After reappearing, he explained that he had spent the two years at his maternal grandmother's home.
The compound in Kwa Bi Nzaro village where cult members lived and carried out their activities inside Shakahola Forest, in Kilifi County, pictured on august 30, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
The two later moved to Malindi and started life afresh in the Furunzi area. There, they pooled their resources and purchased a motorcycle, which Garama used for boda boda business.
"He did this for months before I left for my parents' home, leaving him behind with our children," she said.
After some time, she said, her husband called and asked her to collect the children, which she did.
Ms Masha said she returned to her parents' home, where she looked for work to support the children while her husband continued operating the boda boda business in Malindi.
"That's how I lost contact with him. I was later arrested around July 2025 and interrogated about the whereabouts of my husband," she said.
She explained that she was later informed that her husband had been arrested over the Kwa Bi Nzaro cult deaths.
Allan Morris Luwali was the man who sold the motorcycle to Garama. The same motorcycle was allegedly used to ferry followers from Malindi town to Kwa Bi Nzaro Forest, where they were taken to fast to death.
Documents presented to investigators included a sale agreement dated May 15, 2024, copies of identification documents and the motorcycle logbook.
"I indeed sold the said motorcycle, a Bajaj Boxer, to Garama as indicated in that sale agreement, which we both co-signed together with our respective witnesses listed thereon," he stated.
He testified that Garama paid Sh18,000 for the motorcycle at his garage in Malindi and that he had known him for several months as a boda boda operator who occasionally brought motorcycles for repairs.
The witness positively identified Garama in court as the customer to whom he sold the motorcycle in 2024.
Their testimonies formed part of the prosecution's case in the ongoing crimes-against-humanity trial against Mackenzie and his co-accused, including Thuva, over deaths linked to Kwa Bi Nzaro Forest and the broader Shakahola tragedy that claimed more than 450 lives.
In the case, the State has charged Mackenzie, self-styled priestess Sharleen Temba Anindo and four others with 23 counts of murder as crimes against humanity over the Kwa Bi Nzaro deaths.
Sharlyne Anindo Temba who is suspected to be the “chief priestess” of the Kwa Bi Nzaro cult.
Photo credit: Pool
The other accused are Kahindi Kazungu Garama, also known as Mlewa; Tom Ochieng Mkonwe, also known as Thomas; Julius Thuva Luwali; and Johnson Gona Richard.
The State alleges that, in furtherance of an organisational policy of the church and as part of a widespread and systematic attack against its members, the accused knowingly caused the unlawful killing of multiple children.
In alternative counts, the accused are also charged with the murder of the same victims listed in the main charges.
Two other suspects, Charles Mutua Musee, also known as Mzee Mutua, and James Kazungu Kahindi, also known as Ponda or Baba Bura, face separate charges as accessories after the fact.
Musee is accused of harbouring Luwali at his home in Kanyaa Village, Mwingi Sub-County, knowing he had committed murder, thereby assisting him to evade arrest. Kahindi is alleged to have helped Temba, Garama and Mkonwe escape arrest in Mombasa between July 19 and 21, 2025. All the accused have denied the charges.
