Pastor Mackenzie's 6 Controversial Teachings Before Shakahola Massacre

Many Kenyans, and by definition, Christian faithful around the world are still finding it hard to believe that Pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church was able to lure hundreds of Kenyans into his deadly Shakahola Forest cult in Kilifi County.

Viral Tea encountered reports of Beatrice Ajenta Charles, alias Betty, an air hostess working for Qatar Airways on a highly-coveted job who sold everything and quit her career to join Pastor Mackenzie's cult. She followed her parents to join the church for fasting at the expense of her lucrative job.

Ghetto Radio reported that Betty had a son who was forced to fast to death, prompting her to return to Kenya for her son's burial but mysteriously went missing with all her social media handles deleted after selling all her properties and booking a one-way flight to Malindi.

Beatrice Ajenta Charles taking a mirror selfie onboard a Qatar Airways flight. /TWITTER.ZOWAN FAYZAN

Betty's sister Constance Chao also quit her military job to join the cult, and her husband does not know if she is alive or dead. In addition, Betty and Constance had a brother called Michael, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

Controversial Teachings

Despite insisting that he is not a pastor and clarifying that the title is a nickname which most people have chosen to use while referring to him, Pastor Mackenzie has had teachings which have sparked controversy across the country.

One of them was a belief that the Huduma Namba introduced during former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration is the "mark of the beast, 666", seemingly referring to the book of Revelation 13:16-18 which reads, "It is also forced all people to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666."

In April 2019, the former Head of State would later refute those claims saying "Mimi nilishangaa juzi, na mimi nawaheshimu (makasisi) haswa nikiwa mkristo, nikiskia makasisi wengine wakisema, ati hii ni namba ya shetani, (I respect the preachers as a Christian myself but it was surprising to hear some of them claiming that the Huduma Namba is the devil's number)."

After moving his operations from the Migingo area in Malindi to the Shakahola Forest in 2019, Pastor Mackenzie claimed that Jesus Christ had spoken to him and told him that his work of end-time prophecy had been fulfilled and he could live a normal life as a farmer. He thereafter shut down TV operations claiming that Jesus had told him it would fail.

Mackenzie had also taught that the education system is evil and has severally condemned the teaching of sex education under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) claiming that children in Kenyan schools are being taught homosexuality. It is worth it to note that the Supreme Court recently allowed LGBTQ+ members to register an NGO in Kenya even though this sparked a nationwide uproar

Mackenzie had further referred to a prophecy he made in December 2019 where he taught that an economic downturn is the result of evil in the world and is a punishment from God.

Mackenzie had also agreed with the idea that one cannot conduct a religious fast in their own home, insisting that fasters must be gathered in one place for the fast to be successful. He favoured the idea of locking up fasters so that they are not tempted to find food, which could have led to the Shakahola massacre.

In addition, the church leader believed that the law and faith are at war - that spiritual beliefs will never align with the laws of the land.

What Next After Shakahola?

Following the events, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi condemned the deadly cult, calling for more vigilance from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), apparently backing up Minority Leader in the National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi's statement faulting security intelligence for failing to notice the red flags within Pastor Mackenzie.

“The unfolding horror that is the Shakahola cult deaths should and must be a wake-up call to the nation, more particularly the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and our community policing program. What happened in Shakahola is awful. It ought not to have happened but it happened all the same, worse still to very innocent people.

“How did such a heinous crime, organized and executed over a considerable period of time, escape the radar of our intelligence system? How did evil of such an astounding magnitude take place without being detected? How did this 'pastor' gather so many people, indoctrinated, brainwashed and starved them to death in the name of religion and then buried them in a forest without being detected?” Kingi posed.

Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome on Monday, April 24 revealed that 11 more bodies were exhumed from the Paul Mackenzie land in Kilifi, bringing the total number of exhumed bodies to 58, from the 47 confirmed on Sunday, April 23.

Later on, a man suspected to be a co-mastermind and the lead clergy attached to Pastor Mackenzie, who identified himself as "Pastor Zablon Wa Yesu", was found reading a Bible on a section of the expansive 800-acre land owned by the cult leader and arrested.

Police also rescued nine people from death by starvation, with five of the rescued people in critical condition and were rushed to hospital.

A man who identified himself as "Pastor Zablon Wa Yesu" is escorted by police in Shakahola, Kilifi County, on March 24, 2023. /DAILY NATION