Teen narrates forced starvation ordeal in Shakahola trial

A 15-year-old boy, code-named as GN, stood as a key witness on Tuesday in the ongoing manslaughter trial against controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie and 94 co-accused.

His quiet voice carried the weight of unspeakable trauma as he recounted his experience inside Shakahola Forest, a place he once believed would bring him closer to heaven.

Now, it’s the site of one of the country’s most chilling religious tragedies.

Inside a packed Mombasa courtroom, GN identified photographs of himself taken during his time in the forest.

The images showed a visibly frail boy, weakened from days without food or water.

GN told the court his condition was the result of extreme fasting, imposed on Mackenzie’s followers as a means to "hasten death" and secure a path to eternal life.

“He said Jesus was not coming back. That we had to die to follow Him,” GN testified.

The young witness described how he, along with his mother and younger brother, regularly attended Mackenzie’s teachings at Saturday gatherings.

The court heard that Mackenzie’s followers were put on a disturbing fasting schedule that began with newborns, followed by young children, women, and finally men.

GN said Mackenzie had designated himself to be the last to die.

Shakahola was no chaotic encampment, GN explained, but a carefully organised community with strict roles.

There were designated village elders, enforcers of discipline and even a security team tasked with monitoring followers and guarding against police raids.

GN recalled being beaten by a man identified as Evans and named several members of the security team, including Manu wa Tuk Tuk, Titus, Stefano, Hallelujah, Robert and Charles.

These men, he said, patrolled the forest, intercepted escape attempts and relayed intelligence to Mackenzie about police presence.

After 11 days without food, GN and a friend attempted to escape, but they were captured and returned to Mackenzie’s residence.

Eventually, GN and his brother managed to send a plea for help to a local herder, who alerted the authorities.

That moment marked the beginning of their rescue and the end of their ordeal.

The teenager also revealed how the teachings they received from the Good News International Church had led him to drop out of school. This was after they were taught that education was bad.

Followers were forbidden from visiting one another and were taught to “wait upon the Lord” for sustenance, even as starvation claimed lives around them.

The most haunting part of GN’s testimony came when he described how the dead were honoured, stripped of dignity, but not devotion.

Funerals were forbidden from including tears or mourning; Mackenzie would praise the dead as martyrs, hailing their sacrifice with reverence.

Fasting took place in what GN described as “fasting bays”, which were makeshift rooms covered in black plastic sheeting, designed to trap heat and accelerate dehydration.

Inside these suffocating enclosures, many would eventually die.

The Shakahola massacre, which claimed over 100 lives, unravelled in 2023, with reports that Mackenzie allegedly radicalised and brainwashed his followers, that if they stopped eating, they would die peacefully, go to heaven and meet their god.

The case continues.