Charles Seth Okinyi once wore the Kenya Prisons uniform, went to work diligently and led what many Kenyans would consider a stable life.
Stationed at Homa Bay GK Prison, Okinyi was, by all accounts, a disciplined officer who understood structure, authority and duty – traits expected of one serving in the disciplined forces.
Those who knew him say nothing about his early years hinted at the dramatic and disturbing transformation that would later redefine his life and draw him into a dark spiritual trajectory.
Today, Okinyi features prominently in chilling court testimonies surrounding Kwa Bi Nzaro cult deaths linked to controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie, a tragedy that continues to expose the terrifying grip of radical religious indoctrination in the country.
Pastor Paul Mackenzie when he appeared before a Mombasa court on November 10, 2025.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
The tragedy, which came barely a year after the Shakahola massacre that claimed more than 450 lives, has led Okinyi’s household to believe he could be among the victims of the latest cult incident where at least 52 people died in Kwa Bi Nzaro forest.
Accounts before the High Court in Mombasa depict Okinyi not as a violent extremist, but a man whose mind appeared to drift steadily away from reality after becoming consumed by the teachings of Mr Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries Church that portrayed the world as irredeemably evil and on the brink of destruction.
“Before quitting his job, Okinyi told me the world was about to end and, therefore, he wanted to leave in order to fully concentrate on religious matters,” his elder brother Titus Omondi Olum told the court.
Relatives and friends who testified described a gradual but frightening transformation in the former prison employee’s behaviour.
The once disciplined security official is said to have begun distancing himself from ordinary social life and openly rejected symbols of authority he had served for more than 12 years.
“He resigned from his job because his new-found faith did not allow him to salute his bosses. The faith made Okinyi view saluting as a form of idol worship,” Mr Olum said.
He added that he attempted to persuade his brother not to resign from his job, but the prisons officer rejected the advice.
Mr Olum said he told his brother not to abandon the benefits he would receive for his service to the government and assured him that they could work out how to help him, but he wanted to hear none of it.
“Okinyi told me he did not want what he referred to as the devil’s money,” he said.
Even with all that, Mr Olum did not give up. He called a family meeting attended by Okinyi, hoping he would explain to everyone why he did not want to continue working as a prison officer.
Mr Olum told the court that he was gravely concerned because he had paid school fees for his younger brother and even helped him secure the job.
“It pained to see him resign and become unstable,” he said.
Mr Olum then engaged the prison headquarters, where he discovered that Okinyi’s resignation letter had no stamp, meaning it had not been officially received.
It was during his inquiry that he also discovered that his brother deserted duty at one point and had been issued with a show cause letter.
What Mr Olum did not know, he told the court, was that his brother had become a staunch follower of Pastor Mackenzie, whose teachings had consumed almost every aspect of his life.
“My mother and I would chase some of the people who came home to visit Okinyi and his family for what they kept describing as prayers,” Mr Olum said.
Okinyi began selling the family’s possessions, including cattle, goats, pigs, ducks, chickens and household items without providing a clear explanation.
He also leased his piece of land to a neighbour for Sh7,000.
What at first appeared to relatives, friends and neighbours as unusual religious zeal gradually turned into fear and confusion as Mr Olum’s household prepared for an unknown journey.
Without warning or notice, Okinyi disappeared from his rural village of Othoro, North Kanyamkago, Migori County, on the morning of March 27, 2025.
He left with his wife, Emily Adoyo and their children Pendo Karren, Garson Fadhili and Wema Rhoda.
Okinyi’s eldest daughter, Rehema Amina, and her husband, Steve Juma, joined him and the others at the town centre before the large family boarded a bus.
Mr Olum later established that his brother had travelled to Mombasa after telling the extended family that he had moved to Kisii County, where he had reportedly bought land and built a house.
He got the information from a taxi driver who ferried the entire Okinyi family to Kisii, from where they boarded a Mombasa-bound bus the same day.
“They were late, so my brother hired the vehicle to rush them to Kisii town. From then on, I could not reach my brother by phone as his known number was off,” Mr Olum told the court.
Kwa Bi Nzaro cult prime suspect Sharlyne Anindo Temba at the Malindi Law Courts in Kilifi County on September 12, 2025.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
Okinyi’s other son, Japheth Lenox Karim, helped the court trace his father’s background before his resignation from the Kenya Prisons Service in 2022 while stationed in Homa Bay.
Japheth told the court that while in Nairobi around 2018, they were exposed to Mr Mackenzie’s sermons on Times TV. The sermons gradually influenced his parents.
He said the teachings discouraged formal education, modern medical care and women’s grooming, repeatedly emphasising that education was not God’s plan.
Japheth and his sisters were withdrawn from school in 2019. The family increasingly embraced the movement, attending Good News International Church and following Mr Mackenzie’s broadcasts.
Japheth said his father was transferred to Homa Bay in 2020 and eventually resigned more than a year later.
The Okinyi family later relocated to Othoro village, where it continued to follow Mackenzie’s teachings and sermons online while engaging in farming.
Here, Japheth said, the influence deepened, with his father describing government work as “beast like” and incompatible with his beliefs.
He told the court that amid reports of the deaths in Kilifi County in 2024, his father even suggested going to pray in Shakahola and asked him if he could fast to death.
“I told him that I was still young. He did not give details and I did not make further inquiries,” he said.
Japheth moved to Homa Bay town for work in 2025 but lost contact with his family after they reportedly moved to Kisii.
Weeks later, he received a call suggesting his family had “left”, before discovering that his parents and siblings may have died.
“I received the mysterious call in June 2025. The caller asked if I was Okinyi’s son, and if my parents were with twins, a young girl and an adult daughter. I confirmed, then he said he was sorry, they ‘left us’ and immediately disconnected the call. I could not call back since he had contacted me using a private number,” Japheth told the court.
He confirmed that his brother-in-law was a Mackenzie follower, and DNA samples were taken to assist in investigations.
Japheth and Olum told the court they do not know the whereabouts of their relatives but added that having been called to testify in the case, they assume they are dead.
Okinyi was born in 1979 and sat his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations at Uriri High School. After high school, he joined the Kenya Prisons Service in 2007 as a warder – now prison constable.
The two men were testifying in a case in which Mr Mackenzie is charged with 23 counts of murder and crimes against humanity over the 52 cult-related deaths in Kwa Bi Nzaro forest.
The doomsday preacher is jointly charged with self-styled priestess Sharleen Temba Anindo alias Ann, Mr Kahindi Kazungu Garama alias Mlewa, Mr Tom Ochieng Mkonwe alias Thomas or Tomaso, Mr Julius Tuva Luwali, Mr Johnson Gona Richard, Mr Charles Mutua Musee alias Mzee Mutua and Mr James Kazungu Kahindi alias Ponda or Baba Bura.
