By Arnold Neliba
MOMBASA, JANUARY 19, 2024 (CISA)-Controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church who has been in custody since May 2023 has been charged with terrorism following the deaths of 429 people.
Pastor Mackenzie, his wife Rhoda Maweu and 93 others were presented before Senior Principal Magistrate Joe Omido in Shanzu Court in Mombasa where they denied all five counts of terrorism over the Shakahola massacre.
The charge sheet indicates that Mackenzie and his co-accused engaged in organized criminal activities, thereby endangering lives and leading to the deaths of 429 people in Shakahola.
“All the accused persons be remanded in the respective GK prisons. Maweu, the 32 accused shall be remanded at Shimo la Tewa,” Senior Magistrate Omido directed.
The prosecution argues that the accused endangered the lives of and led to the deaths of 429 members and followers of Good News International (GNI). Captured in the charge sheet, the prosecution claimed that GNI was an organized criminal group between 2020 and 2023 in the Kwa Makenzi area of Shakahola Forest in Chakama, Kilifi County.
The group, according to the prosecution, promoted an extreme belief system to facilitate ideologically based violence.
Besides the terrorism charge, Pastor Mackenzie and Smart Mwakalama, believed to be his deputy leader were charged with facilitating the commission of terrorism act, while 62 of Mackenzie’s followers were charged with radicalization by adopting an extreme belief system to facilitate ideologically based violence.
With the charging of the accused and his accomplices, what follows is a series of hearing sessions, where the prosecution will be put to task to prove why the accused should be denied bail and to prove the charges by presenting witnesses and evidence.
