- On Wednesday afternoon, Yaa testified that Mackenzie settled on their ancestral land in Shakahola with the help of his uncle, Salimu Jefwa Mwaro, who assisted in the land acquisition.
- Yaa also sold Mackenzie another 10 acres in Shakahola for Sh50,000.
Image: CHARLES MGHENYI
Cult leader Paul Mackenzie purchased part of the vast Shakahola land from the Mwabaya Mwaro clan, a witness has testified in court.
Shadrack Baya Yaa, the 10th witness in the case where Mackenzie and 93 others face 238 counts of manslaughter for deaths in Shakahola Forest, provided details on how the controversial preacher came to own land in the area.
Mackenzie moved to Shakahola in December 2019 after closing down his Good News International church in Furunzi, Malindi.
On Wednesday, Yaa testified that Mackenzie settled on their ancestral land in Shakahola with the help of his uncle, Salimu Jefwa Mwaro, who assisted in the land acquisition.
Yaa, a 42-year-old farmer, said he was not privy to the specifics of the land transaction between his uncle and Mackenzie, adding that he was unsure of the exact acreage.
Shortly after purchasing the land, Mackenzie arrived with some of his followers.
In 2020, Yaa said he was informed by a young man he had hired to cut grass on his 10-acre parcel near Shakahola Youth Polytechnic that someone had inquired about acquiring land adjacent to the road.
About a week later, Yaa said Mackenzie passed by his land and enquired about the possibility of buying that parcel.
They agreed to sell the 10 acres to Mackenzie for Sh50,000.
“At that time, Mackenzie had already occupied some land within the Shakahola forest with his followers. We mutually agreed on a Kajama (consideration fee) of Sh5,000 per acre for my 10 acres by the roadside," Yaa told the court.
He said Mackenzie asked for his national ID to draft a sale agreement, which they would sign the following day in Malindi.
“The next day, I went to his Good News International church in Furunzi. Mackenzie produced a typed sale agreement, which I signed and he gave me Sh50,000 in cash," Yaa said.
However, Mackenzie never provided him with a copy of the agreement, citing a power outage that prevented photocopies from being made.
Since then, Yaa never received the agreement.
Later, Mackenzie built a mud-walled, iron-roofed house on the property, though he never lived there. He instead continuing to reside in the forest about eight kilometres away.
In January 2021, Yaa said he began noticing many new faces at his cereal shop near Shakahola Youth Polytechnic.
“Most of the women who came to my shop wore long dresses and kept their hair short. They rarely talked or socialised with the locals,” Yaa said.
In February 2021, due to the increased demand from his new customers, Yaa decided to buy a posho mill to cater to the booming business.
“My business was thriving,” he said.
However, by January 2023, the number of customers had drastically reduced. Yaa assumed some had returned to their homes.
In March, a young man identified as HG visited his shop saying Mackenzie had allocated his three acres of land to another person.
“He told me that Mackenzie had given three acres of his land to someone else after he refused to heed his warnings. Mackenzie had instructed him to stop working, but he left for Malindi to work," he said.
Yaa directed the young man to the village elder, Kenga Katana Chea, who later confirmed the situation.
They agreed to visit Mackenzie within three days.
Soon after, Yaa left for Voi to visit his expectant wife, he told the court.
“HG called me, saying 14 children had died in Shakahola under mysterious circumstances. I alerted the Galana GSU camp about the incident through a phone call,” Yaa said.
Days later, he learned of Mackenzie’s arrest on the news.
On April 20, Yaa returned to Shakahola from Voi.
“News of the Shakahola deaths and Mackenzie’s arrest were all over the news,” he said.
On April 23, local MCA Samson Zia stopped by Yaa’s shop and asked him to accompany them to Shakahola where the exhumation of bodies was ongoing.
Once in the forest, they discovered bodies being exhumed by police officers, he said.
Yaa joined the police and the area chief in searching for survivors in the vast forest.
On the second day, the search continued, and they encountered a man dressed in white vest and blue trousers in one of the deserted compounds.
“The man was extremely weak, with a dry mouth and appeared malnourished. He couldn’t speak. We carried him to a nearby ambulance and rushed him to the hospital,” he said.
As the search progressed, they met a herder who mentioned another compound with a group of men who appeared equally weak.
“We found a mud-thatched house locked from the outside. We broke in and found two people—a 14-year-old boy and a man,” he said.
“The young boy had head injuries. He had been beaten for trying to drink water out of thirst and hunger. He wore only shorts and looked frail. I carried him on my back to the place we had set up a rescue centre.”
Yaa said he had taken several photos of the survivors, which he shared with the police.
At the centre, they encountered another man, Zablon wa Yesu, who had been arrested. He was among those overseeing the fasting in the forest.
All four survivors were transported to Malindi Hospital in a KWS vehicle.
The following day, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki visited Shakahola and declared it a crime scene, therefore, civilians were barred from getting into the forest.
“I was never involved in the exhumation, I only rescued a few people,” he said.