Behind Bars but Still Preaching: Shakahola Cult Leader Used Contraband Phones to Sustain Doomsday Teachings, Court Hears

A court in Kenya has been told how Paul Mackenzie, the preacher at the centre of the Shakahola tragedy, obtained contraband mobile phones while in custody and used them to keep his doomsday teachings alive among his followers.

The revelation emerged during the ongoing trial proceedings in Mombasa stemming from the deaths at Shakahola forest in Kilifi County on Kenya's coast, where investigators in 2023 exhumed more than 400 bodies from shallow graves in one of the deadliest cult-related disasters on record.

The court was told that Mackenzie, despite being behind bars, managed to access prohibited mobile devices and relied on them to sustain communication of his apocalyptic doctrine, the same body of teachings that prosecutors say drove hundreds of his followers to their deaths. The testimony laid bare how the preacher's influence extended beyond prison walls, with the contraband phones serving as a lifeline for his message.

Mackenzie is the founder of the Good News International Church, a fringe religious movement he built after years working as a taxi driver before turning to preaching. Central to his ministry was the teaching that followers should starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus ahead of the end of the world, a doctrine he propagated as he led his congregation into the vast, scrubland expanse of Shakahola.

The scale of the tragedy came to light in April 2023, when police acting on tip-offs from relatives raided the forest and rescued dozens of emaciated followers who had gone without food for weeks. What followed was a prolonged exhumation exercise that stretched across months, with investigators unearthing body after body from shallow graves, many of them children. Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 and has remained in custody since.

He faces a raft of charges alongside dozens of co-accused, including murder, manslaughter, child cruelty and terrorism-related offences. Mackenzie has denied the charges. The path to trial was marked by repeated delays, including court-ordered psychiatric evaluations that ultimately found him fit to stand trial.

Mackenzie is detained at Shimo La Tewa Maximum Security Prison in Mombasa County, and it is within this custodial setting that the latest testimony about the contraband phones arose. The court heard that the devices were smuggled into his possession in breach of prison regulations, and that he used them to maintain a grip on the doomsday narrative at the heart of the case against him.

Prosecutors have previously raised alarm that Mackenzie's hold over segments of his following endured long after the deaths at Shakahola, with some followers continuing to profess loyalty to him and turning up at his court appearances in Mombasa. Earlier in the proceedings, there were reports of emaciated supporters gathering outside the courthouse, a stark illustration of the devotion his teachings continued to command.

The exhumation and identification exercise that followed the discovery at Shakahola became one of the largest of its kind in Kenya's history, with forensic teams processing hundreds of remains as distraught families submitted DNA samples in the hope of recovering the bodies of missing relatives. The sheer volume of victims complicated identification efforts, leaving some families waiting years for answers.

The trial has drawn sustained public attention in Kenya, with each court session scrutinised for new details about how the congregation was led into the forest, how the fasts were enforced, and how the deaths unfolded undetected for so long. Witnesses have been paraded before the court to piece together the inner workings of the movement and the role Mackenzie played in orchestrating events at Shakahola.

The latest testimony on the contraband phones adds a new dimension to the prosecution's narrative, suggesting that the machinery of the doomsday movement did not grind to a halt with Mackenzie's arrest but instead adapted to the conditions of his detention.

The trial continues in Mombasa, with Mackenzie and his co-accused remaining in custody as proceedings unfold.