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Photo collage showing Brenda Mwihaki Mwaura (left) testifying via Zoom at the Mombasa High Court, and Pastor Paul Mackenzie (right) attending proceedings on November 10, 2025.
A whistleblower who had publicly warned about the Shakahola massacre months before it was exposed has finally told her story in court, shedding light on chilling details of how the doomsday cult operated in secrecy.
Ms. Brenda Mwihaki Mwaura, a former member of the Good News International (GNI) church led by pastor Paul Mackenzie, testified before a Mombasa court on Monday via Zoom. She revealed that she authored a Facebook post in November 2022, nearly four months before the Shakahola tragedy became public.
In that viral post shared in a Facebook group called “Malindi Kenya,” Ms. Mwaura accused Mackenzie of “killing people and burying them on his farm.” The post was meant to raise the alarm and prompt authorities to act before more lives were lost.
“I was tired of preacher Paul Mackenzie’s end-times message nonsense. I saw trouble coming,” she told the court.
The Inside Story of a Cult’s Media Machine
Ms. Mwaura, whose father was among GNI’s preachers, played a crucial role in Mackenzie’s operations. She was in charge of recording, editing, and packaging his sermons for broadcast on Times TV and for sale to followers and curious outsiders drawn to his radical teachings.
Her closeness to the inner workings of the cult exposed her to disturbing information. She testified that her father, who later fell out with Mackenzie over ideological differences, was the one who informed her about the killings taking place on the Shakahola farm.
“I got that information from my father, that people were dying on the farm,” she said. “He used to tell me what that man (Mackenzie) was doing, killing people, and no one was helping. I heard people were dying and they were not allowed to leave.”
Ignored Warnings and Threats of Retaliation
After posting the information on Facebook, Ms. Mwaura tagged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), pleading for immediate intervention. However, no action was taken.
RELATED – How a Deleted Facebook Post Could Have Stopped Shakahola Tragedy
The following day, Mackenzie himself reportedly went to the Malindi DCI office, seeking help to trace, arrest, and take legal action against the author of the post, a move that led to her post being pulled down.
“All I got was a threat from Mackenzie’s people,” Ms. Mwaura told the court. “Two people contacted me after I posted. I could identify their voices. They said I didn’t know what I was posting and that they would come for me.”
She said one of the callers was a GNI member who acted as Mackenzie’s link to the outside world, updating him about social media activity and public sentiment.
“Mackenzie was giving orders to his juniors to do the ‘job’ for him. There was no rapture in Shakahola, so he killed them,” she added.
When asked why she failed to appear before police after being summoned, Ms. Mwaura said she feared for her life. “I feared I could be a victim of enforced disappearance,” she explained.
Growing Up Inside Mackenzie’s Cult
Recounting her early years, the witness told the court that she joined the Good News International Church when she was just 14 years old.
“The whole family attended the GNI Makongeni branch in Nairobi,” she said. “While there, we were told that work, education, modern medicine, and using beauty products to enhance appearance were all evil and against God’s plan.”
The teachings, she explained, centered on preparing believers for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and members were taught that they had to remain pure to be found worthy. “So we were to be found pure. That was the basis of the teachings,” she added.
From a Devout Follower to a Rebel
When schools closed that year, Ms. Mwaura dropped out and never returned to continue her education. Her parents, deeply devoted to the church, did not question her decision.
“My father just asked, ‘Are you sure you want to drop out of school? Will you not blame me in future?’ But he didn’t insist, because he was also a preacher and believed education was evil,” she said.
Reflecting on her past, Ms. Mwaura told the court she wished her parents had been stricter. “But I was just 14 years old! Ningechapwa ningerudi shuleni (If I had been caned, I would have gone back to school),” she remarked.
Her defiance, however, seemed to please Mackenzie, who began using her as an example in his anti-education sermons.
“Mackenzie was now using me as an example while preaching against education. He would mention me, saying that I dropped out of school but was now the video editor at Times TV,” she said.
The Turning Point
After dropping out, Ms. Mwaura learned video production skills and became a key figure in disseminating Mackenzie’s apocalyptic messages. The church mass-produced CDs and DVDs, which followers eagerly bought.
But as she matured, she began to question the dangerous path the cult had taken.
“I had become an adult. I felt tired of those nonsense end-times messages. That is how I left the church,” she said.
Her testimony now stands as a haunting reminder of how early warnings about the Shakahola massacre went unheeded and how one young woman’s courage to speak out could have saved lives if only the authorities had listened.
Source: NairobiWire.com | Read the Full Story…
