Prosecutors are desperate for eyewitnesses to provide evidence that cult leader Paul Mackenzie ordered the deaths by starvation of hundreds of his followers in Shakahola Forest in 2023.
Police have curated 200 witnesses. But many are children (often considered unreliable) and only a dozen adults – and some of their testimony is second or third hand.
One witness police and prosecution would like to take the stand is Stephen Mwiti, 47, but so far he’s refused.
Over a year ago Mwiti told me a compelling story of his encounter with former taxi driver and pastor Paul Mackenzie at Shakahola, after his wife and his six children disappeared there in 2022.
Mwiti wanted to ask Mackenzie the whereabouts of his wife and six children. He scoured the bush for two hours along the way passing small mud grass roof homes. The children he saw ran away from him shrieking. He came across a white Toyota partially hidden in the tall grass and next to that the larger and strongly built with plaster compared to the other 250 compound or homesteads. In between the large and rooms was a wide pathway that led to the back of the house there he saw Mackenzie clad in shorts and sandals sitting on a “throne”. Made of reed and resembling an outdoor hanging chair or weaver bird nest. built like look like a birds nest lined with pillows on either side sat around 90 women and 50 children. The women’s heads were short and they wore traditional mangas versus any western clothing.
