A witness in the ongoing radicalisation case against controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie stunned the court when she bizarrely claimed that the preacher transformed into a snake, bit her husband and disappeared into a hole.
The witness, identified as L.A., told the court that the bizarre incident occurred around 7pm while she and her husband, J.O., were living at Shakahola before they were rescued.
L.A. said Mackenzie had visited their homestead shortly before she witnessed what she described as his transformation, beginning with his head and shortly afterwards involving the rest of his body.
“I saw his head turn into a snake. He came to us looking like Mackenzie, but then his head transformed into a snake, and shortly afterwards, his entire body turned into a snake,” she said.
She told the court that she was outside their homestead when she saw the snake approach her husband and bite him on the leg.
“Mackenzie turned into a snake, bit my husband on the leg and then disappeared into a hole,” she said.
“I could not even scream. I did not know what to do,” she recalled.
She said the incident happened near a mud bed outside their home and that she watched the snake move towards J.O.’s leg before biting him.
“I exclaimed, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s a snake,’” she testified.
When State Counsel Jami Yamina asked whether she had been dreaming when the incident occurred, L.A. was emphatic.
“I was not dreaming. I was awake,” she said.
Her testimony formed part of the prosecution’s case against Mackenzie and his seven co-accused over alleged radicalisation and terrorism-related offences linked to the deaths of at least 52 followers of the outlawed Good News International (GNI) church at Kwa Binzaro.
L.A. said she and her husband were eventually rescued from Shakahola before the mass graves associated with Mackenzie’s followers were discovered.
A view in one of the Pastor Paul Mackenzie's living rooms when High Court Judge Justice Wendy Kagendo visited his homestead in Shakahola Forest in Malindi Sub-County on June 24, 2026.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
More than 450 bodies linked to the GNI church were exhumed from Shakahola in 2023, before a second operation at Kwa Binzaro began in 2025.
L.A. also told the court that she returned to Kwa Binzaro after Mackenzie, who was in prison, called her husband and persuaded the family to go back to the wilderness, which followers referred to as “jangwani”, to undertake prolonged fasting “in preparation for meeting Jesus”.
She said Mackenzie later asked to speak to her and, during a conversation lasting about 20 minutes, claimed he had the souls of people who had initially been at Shakahola.
L.A. said she believed Mackenzie and agreed to return, a decision she linked to the eventual deaths of her six children.
She testified that she had initially attended Voice of Salvation Church before joining GNI and eventually relocating to Shakahola after becoming convinced that Mackenzie’s teachings represented the true path to salvation.
According to the witness, followers were taught that education and employment were sinful, while seeking medical treatment was discouraged because Jesus alone was believed to heal.
“When you study and get a job, that work is a sin,” she said.
She also testified that followers were taught that the Huduma Namba was “the mark of the beast” and that people with national identity cards belonged to the devil.
According to L.A., followers were instructed to burn their identity cards. She said she did not burn hers because she believed she had already received the mark of the beast, but burnt her children’s birth certificates in obedience to the teachings.
She added that hospitals were portrayed as evil, partly because of the serpent symbol associated with the medical profession, further discouraging followers from seeking medical treatment.
On Tuesday, the court adopted the testimonies of 18 prosecution witnesses who had previously testified before the High Court following an application by the prosecution.
Senior Principal Magistrate Mwanamkuu Sudi directed that the witnesses’ exhibits, crime scene notes, inventory records and other documentary evidence also form part of the record in the Kwa Binzaro trial.
The court subsequently heard Chief Inspector Timothy Bett, a crime scene officer who led forensic experts in documenting the Kwa Binzaro site.
Mr Bett told the court that the crime scene, about 62 kilometres from Malindi, contained multiple graves concealed in dense bushes, approximately 500 metres from nearby homesteads.
He testified that investigators recovered 19 intact graves and five disturbed graves, with human remains scattered around some of the sites.
Some graves had been disturbed by wild animals because they were shallow, with some dug to depths of two feet or less. Bett added that most of the bodies had been buried without clothing.
Pastor Paul Mackenzie (centre) with his co-accused at Kwa Binzaro area in Malindi Sub-county when High Court Judge Justice Wendy Kagendo visited Shakahola Forest June 25, 2026.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
The court also heard from J.O., a former follower, who testified that his six children, aged between two and 16, died at Kwa Binzaro.
J.O. said he lived at Shakahola from May 2021 to February 2023, where he attended Mackenzie’s teachings conducted under “Mitola” trees.
He alleged that Mackenzie discouraged followers from reading the Bible, describing it as unnecessary because they already had Jesus with them.
The witness further alleged that followers were instructed to lie to government officials because the administration, from the President to village elders, was portrayed as evil. Members of other churches and relatives outside the movement were similarly labelled evil.
According to J.O., followers were also discouraged from marrying, working or maintaining normal family lives and were instead urged to undertake “kufunga express”, prolonged fasting without food or water until death, which they believed was the quickest route to heaven.
J.O. became emotional while recounting the deaths of children, including his four-year-old child, whom he said repeatedly cried for milk tea before dying.
He also alleged that he witnessed other followers being suffocated, including a man identified as Owino, whom he said was still alive before the alleged suffocation.
Mackenzie, alias Mtumishi, and self-styled priestess Shallyne Temba Anindo, alias Ann, are charged alongside Kahindi Kazungu Garama, alias Mlewa; Tom Ochieng Mkonwe, alias Thomas and Tomaso; Julius Tuva Luwali; Johnson Gona Richard; Charles Mutua Musee, alias Mzee Mutua; and James Kazungu Kahindi, alias Ponda and Baba Bura.
According to the charge sheet, the eight face six counts relating to alleged organised criminal activity, radicalisation and terrorism-related offences.
In the first count, the prosecution alleges that between January and July 2025, at Kwa Binzaro in Chakama Location, Magarini Sub-County, Kilifi County, the accused were members of GNI, described as an organised criminal group that endangered the lives of its followers and contributed to the deaths of at least 52 people.
In the second count, Mackenzie, Temba, Garama, Mkonwe, Luwali and Gona are accused of promoting an extreme belief system that rejected the authority of the Kenyan government to advance ideologically motivated violence. Prosecutors allege that they encouraged followers to undertake prolonged fasting to death in pursuit of religious and social change.
Musee and Kahindi face a similar charge in the third count, with prosecutors alleging that they adopted and advanced extremist beliefs against state authority and facilitated ideologically motivated violence through enforced fasting.
In the fourth count, Temba and Garama are accused of facilitating the commission of a terrorist act. Prosecutors allege that, on or before 8 June 2023, they facilitated the acquisition of land at Kwa Binzaro that was later used in preparation for acts that resulted in the deaths of 52 people through enforced fasting and other forms of violence.
In a separate count, Garama, Luwali and Gona are accused of facilitating the transportation of victims from Malindi Township to Kwa Binzaro in preparation for the alleged offences.
In the sixth count, Temba, Garama, Mkonwe and Musee are accused of possessing materials linked to terrorism-related activities. They allegedly knowingly possessed flash drives and SD cards containing recordings of Mackenzie’s sermons, which prosecutors say were intended to encourage followers to undertake prolonged fasting to death, endangering their lives and contributing to the deaths of at least 52 people.
