Shakahola Horror: Children’s Officer Testifies to Shocking Abuse, Starvation, and Radical Indoctrination
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A senior children’s officer painted a harrowing picture in court this week of the abuse children suffered inside Shakahola Forest under the control of pastor Paul Nthege Mackenzie and his acolytes.
Principal Children’s Officer Sebastian Muli Muteti took the stand before Principal Magistrate Hon. Nelly Chepchirchir at Tononoka Court on Wednesday. In his emotional testimony, he described how Mackenzie’s cult isolated minors and subjected them to radical religious indoctrination, starvation, and brutal torture.
Muteti, the 29th prosecution witness in the ongoing case, told the court that his office began receiving distress calls between February and March 2023. Concerned residents of Shakahola alerted authorities to emaciated children bearing visible injuries and signs of severe neglect.
Acting swiftly, a team of children’s officers and police mobilized and traveled to the remote forest. Upon their arrival, the area chief and local elders received them and guided the team deep into the forest, where they suspected the children were being held.
Some children had already managed to flee the cult’s clutches and found refuge among sympathetic villagers, Muteti revealed. His rescue team split into groups and began combing the forest for more survivors.
While searching, the team encountered four extremely weak and traumatized children. Dressed in filthy, tattered clothes, the minors bore visible stroke marks on their arms and backs—clear evidence of prolonged physical abuse.
The children recounted chilling experiences of beatings and torture at the hands of Mackenzie’s security guards. According to their testimony, guards tied them up and kept them in solitary confinement as punishment for disobedience. The minors said Mackenzie’s men deliberately starved them and other followers, denying them food for days.
Those who attempted to flee faced even harsher consequences—some were severely punished in front of others to instill fear and obedience.
Content retrieved from: https://nairobiwire.com/2025/05/shakahola-horror-childrens-officer-testifies-to-shocking-abuse-starvation-and-radical-indoctrination.html.
