From torture to deadly fasting: How Paul Makenzi turned home into hell

 

Relatives attend the burial of victims of what is known as the Shakahola massacre, in Malindi, on April 5, 2024. [AFP]

When Paul Nthenge Makenzi preached about salvation through starvation, promising his followers a place in heaven if they renounced worldly pleasures, his own family was not spared the misery of his radical religious teachings.

His son, Dan Makenzi, says he endured beatings, forced fasting and the loss of his education while growing up under the shadow of his father’s doomsday beliefs.

Now 24, Dan says he narrowly escaped the fate of hundreds of followers who died in Shakahola Forest after being ordered to starve themselves and their children to death to “meet Jesus”.

Following Makenzi’s conviction for the murder of 190 children and one adult, Dan has welcomed the verdict, describing it as a moment of relief for families devastated by the Shakahola massacre.

“We suffered under our father’s radical religious teachings,” Dan says, recounting a childhood marked by fear, violence and religious demands he struggled to understand.

When Makenzi founded his Good News International Church in Furunzi, on the outskirts of Malindi, in 2003, Dan was barely a year old. Growing up within the religious movement as a pastor’s son, he says he was subjected to practices that robbed him of a normal childhood.

Woes of a pastor’s son

At just 12, Dan says, he was forced to fast for a week without food or water. When he resisted attending a church service, he alleges, members of the church subjected him to a brutal beating that lasted nearly three hours.

Lewis Kodack, shows a photo of his aunt who was rescued at the site of the so-called "Shakahola forest massacre", before arraignment of the main suspect, self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, outside the Malindi law court, Kilifi county, on May 2, 2023. [AFP]

“I was forced, when I was 12, to fast for a whole week. I was beaten by those church members for almost three hours just to attend a church service,” he recalls.

Dan further alleges that he was stripped naked during the incident, a traumatic experience that deepened his resentment towards the religious movement.

ALSO READ: Makenzi guilty of murder of 191 people in Shakahola Forest

His education also suffered. He left school in Class Seven and began working as a motorcycle taxi rider in Malindi, struggling to support himself despite his young age.

“I left school in Class Seven and turned to the bodaboda business to earn a living,” he says.

The relationship between father and son eventually collapsed. Dan says Makenzi disowned him after he refused to follow him to Shakahola Forest, where the preacher had established a settlement for his followers.

“He just gave up on me, and I said I am on my own,” Dan recalls.

He believes his decision to walk away from his father’s teachings saved his life.

“I have been a victim too of what he was doing in Shakahola. That is why I didn’t end up there, because I was tired of him,” he says.

Today, Dan lives on the outskirts of Malindi, earning a living as a motorcycle taxi operator while helping to support his younger siblings. Although some residents have resented him because of his father’s crimes, he says others have accepted him after learning that he had distanced himself from the movement.

Workers carry the exhumed bodies in bodybags to the mortuary, at the mass-grave site in Shakahola, outside the coastal town of Malindi, on April 25, 2023. [AFP]

Following the court ruling, Dan said the convictions had brought relief to families who had endured years of uncertainty and grief.

“It is a relief for us and those victims who lost their loved ones in Shakahola. Justice has been served. They have been convicted. It was painful for us and for the victims. Now it is a relief, and we are waiting for the sentencing,” he said.

Dan also disclosed that he had spoken to his father, who accused him of betrayal. He said he did not understand why Makenzi viewed his decision to leave as an act of disloyalty and had nothing further to say to him. His concerns now extend to his five younger siblings, comprising three sisters and two brothers, who were rescued and are living at a rescue centre. Two weeks ago, Dan raised the alarm that his younger siblings were still being forced to fast.

He reported the case to police, who rescued eight children, including his five younger siblings from their grandmother’s house, and took them to a rescue centre.

He hopes they will have an opportunity to rebuild their lives away from the influence of the religious movement.

Dan alleges that their grandmother, who is in custody, had also subjected the children to forced fasting, while their education was disrupted.

“They were basically forcibly fasted because they were denying food to them for almost three days,” he said.

A doctrine of death

Dan’s account offers a glimpse into the human cost of Makenzi’s teachings, which prosecutors said culminated in one of Kenya’s deadliest cult-related tragedies.

Workers carry the exhumed bodies in bodybags to the mortuary, at the mass-grave site in Shakahola, outside the coastal town of Malindi, on April 25, 2023. [AFP]

Makenzi instructed followers to starve themselves and their children, claiming that death through fasting would bring them closer to God. Education was forbidden, while modern medicine was portrayed as evil.

The preacher drew on biblical passages to persuade followers to reject worldly knowledge and prepare for the end times. Among the verses invoked were Colossians 2:8, James 3:13, Ecclesiastes 12 and Romans 8:5.

ALSO READ: Shakahola horror: Parents watched children starve to death for 'spiritual reward'

He also cited Numbers 14:31, which refers to children entering a land their parents had rejected, and Matthew 25:1-13, the parable of the ten virgins, to warn followers against being spiritually unprepared when the bridegroom arrived.

Makenzi’s appeal lay partly in his ability to package extreme beliefs in simple, persuasive language that resonated with his audience. His Pentecostal preaching style, charismatic delivery and confident interpretation of scripture helped him attract followers from different parts of the country.

He presented himself as a modern-day Moses who would lead his people to a promised land, encouraging them to abandon worldly pursuits in preparation for salvation.

When he shut down his main church in Furunzi, he bought an acre of land in Shakahola Forest and named the settlement Jangwani. He told followers that Jesus would meet them there.

The relocation was supported by preparations that gave the settlement the appearance of a place where people could live for an extended period. Makenzi dug a dam with a capacity of 18,000 cubic metres, which was said to be sufficient to sustain the households for a year.

Family members and relatives placing flowers on the grave of five-year-old Seith Ngala, his mother Emily Wanje, father Harry Ngonyo and grandmother Esther Masha, all victims of what is known Shakahola massacre, in Malindi, on April 6, 2023. [AFP]

What initially appeared to some followers to be a journey of faith and hope allegedly developed into a tightly controlled community where leaving became difficult.

Delivering her eight-hour judgment at the Mombasa Law Courts, Justice Diana Kavedza said followers believed Makenzi was “Jesus’s mouthpiece”.

One of his co-accused told the court that Makenzi had declared that anyone who resisted fasting should be forced into heaven “through kicks and blows”.

The judge said burials in the forest were described as “weddings”, with those who died celebrated as having “wedded with Jesus”.

The court also heard of the suffering inflicted on children and their mothers. One witness recounted how a pregnant woman had been prevented from nursing her newborn, who died 12 days later.

“She was instructed to fast to death and follow her children,” the witness said.

Makenzi’s former head of security, Enos Amanya Ngala, who had initially been accused in the case, entered a plea deal and became a prosecution witness.

In her judgment, Justice Kavedza condemned the treatment of children, saying parents had abandoned their responsibility to protect them and, in some instances, celebrated their deaths rather than mourning them.

Paul Mackenzie (R), leader of the Good News International Church accused of causing the deaths of more than 400 followers in a starvation cult. [AFP]

“The death of their kids was seen as an obstacle to be achieved rather than being opposed. Starvation became the way to heaven as parents watched their children die as a profit of spiritual reward,” Justice Kavedza said.

The court heard that children who refused to fast were beaten, while others died through starvation, strangulation, suffocation and asphyxia, with some bodies showing signs of starvation.

“Parents would cook and eat and watch their kids starve,” Kavedza said.

The judge said Makenzi had used his main church in Furunzi and 25 other branches across the country to spread his end-times teachings.

“Makenzi deceived his followers with a sweet tongue and a listening ear when they first arrived in Shakahola Forest, something that later changed into a strict community where no one was allowed to leave,’’ said Kavedza.

Children caught in the tragedy

Among the children whose deaths have been linked to the Shakahola tragedy were Harry Ngonyo and Seth Hinzano Ngala, sons of former General Service Unit officer Isaac Ngala.

A court-ordered exhumation of the two siblings led to the discovery of additional mass graves in the forest, exposing the scale of the tragedy.

Other victims included Samuel Kirimi, 7, and Hellen Karimi, 9, who entered the forest with their mother, Bahati Juan, and four other siblings.

The deaths devastated families and left survivors grappling with the loss of children, spouses and other relatives.

Stephen Mwiti, 48, said he lost all his six children in Shakahola. His former wife was among those convicted alongside Makenzi.

“I am a happy man that all persons have been convicted. All my six children died in Shakahola Forest,” he said, fighting back tears. For families such as Mwiti’s, the convictions mark a significant step towards justice, even as they continue to live with the consequences of the deaths.

High Court Judge Diana Kavedza-Mochache presides over the hearing of self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie and co-accused suspects at the Mombasa Law Courts in Mombasa, Kenya, on October 19, 2026. [AFP]

The Shakahola case has gripped the country since the discovery of mass graves in Kilifi County. More than 400 bodies were eventually recovered from the forest, triggering extensive police operations and forensic investigations as families searched for missing relatives.

Makenzi was arrested in 2023 after the discoveries brought renewed scrutiny to his activities. Authorities had been aware of him for years: police searched his premises in 2017, and his church was shut down in 2019 before he relocated to Shakahola Forest.

ALSO READ: I'm a victim of my dad's teaching, Makenzi son welcomes conviction

The scale of the deaths raised serious questions about how the preacher and his followers were able to establish and maintain the settlement despite previous encounters with the authorities.

Makenzi and other leaders of the movement also face other legal cases, including charges relating to terrorism, radicalisation and denying children access to education.

The murder verdict is the first ruling on the most serious charges arising from the Shakahola deaths. Twenty-eight other accused persons were also convicted of murder.

Makenzi is due to be sentenced on November 6.

For Dan, however, the case is not simply about a preacher facing punishment for the deaths of his followers. It is also about a childhood he says was marked by coercion, violence and deprivation, and a family still trying to recover from the consequences of his father’s teachings.

Having escaped the forest, he is now left to build a life on his own terms, while hoping his younger siblings can find the security and opportunities that he says were denied to him.