By Tajeu Shadrack Nkapapa
The court in Shanzu was informed that Paul Mackenzie manipulated religion to attract a large number of people to the Shakahola forest, where he then carried out a massacre.
As per a protected witness, Mackenzie utilized technology and social media to entice his victims to the remote forest, where he would then brainwash them with extremist religious beliefs and radical ideologies.
Mackenzie also promised his victims plenty of farmland within the Shakahola forest on which they would farm and build homes.
Senior Principal Magistrate Leah Juma heard that the future of men, women and children shut down like a rat trap once they are inside the forest.
Further, the court heard that victims were cut off from the rest of the world and their lives were brutally snuffed out as days passed.
Honourable Juma carefully listened while the witness, giving testimony from a witness box separated from Mackenzie and his 94 co-defendants, described in detail the gruesome scene of destruction that took place in the forest from 2020 to 2023.
Mackenzie, along with his deputy Smart Deri Mwakalama and a group of loyal radical individuals, were named as the perpetrators of the heinous crimes committed in Shakahola forest.
According to the Office of the Public Prosecutions, the narration of the whole was like a horror movie.
“The tales of the witness appear like a horror movie with the trial magistrate taking notes of the testimony that will form part of the prosecution evidence intended to place Mackenzie and his- accused at the scene of the crime,” Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote on X.
The court heard that Mackenzie opened a social media account to mobilize people from far and wide.
As people from diverse walks of life entered the forest situated around 200 kilometres from the Shanzu courtroom, where the case began on Monday, families, including both men and women, some of whom were married, arrived with their children after being assured by Mackenzie of the availability of abundant land within the forest.
Each newcomer was granted a few acres of land, which were sold to them at a discounted price, allowing them to build their homes.
The towns were given biblical names such as Bethlehem, Judea, and Jericho, among others.
It was revealed in court that the land was used as a trap to entice victims into the forest, and some lost their share for disobeying Mackenzie’s extreme teachings, which included unauthorized trips to Babel (Malindi town).
The court learned that Mackenzie had a council that he presided over regularly to plan the slaughter of unsuspecting individuals whom he cunningly lured into his scheme.
Upon entering the villages, the victims were subjected to indoctrination into his extreme beliefs centred on the apocalypse, all under the close watch of the armed militia responsible for preventing any attempts to escape. The armed militia, posing as members of the Good News International Ministries (GNIM) church, isolated families who had been influenced by their teachings to abandon worldly matters and despise the government.
According to the report by ODPP, the brainwashed parents were informed that taking their children to schools and hospitals was an ungodly act and any non-biblical literature was destroyed.
Later, Mackenzie ordered parents with children to starve them to death to let them enter heaven, something they implemented under the strict supervision of his armed militia.
The witness who successfully fled recounted the tragic and distressing deaths of the children, an experience that continues to haunt him.
The matter continues to be heard in court on Wednesday 10th July 2024.