MOMBASA, Kenya — The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has produced Dr. Stephen Gathogo Anyenda, Chief Executive Officer of the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics, as an expert witness in the ongoing trial of controversial preacher Pastor Paul Mackenzie and 92 others accused of terrorism and organised crime.
Testifying before the Shanzu Law Courts, Dr. Anyenda presented a detailed interfaith expert report analysing biblical interpretation and its potential misuse in religious cult movements.
He told the court that misinterpretation of scripture can lead to “dangerous consequences,” including radical religious ideologies, cultism, and the rejection of medical care and education — key features linked to Mackenzie’s Good News International Church.
“The Bible offers profound wisdom when interpreted accurately, guiding individuals and communities toward truth and righteousness,” Dr. Anyenda said.
The report examined how distorted religious teachings influence community behaviour, particularly on issues such as beauty, fasting, apocalyptic prophecy, and the doctrine of the Trinity.
Dr. Anyenda explained that, unlike Mackenzie’s teachings, Christian fasting is meant to seek God’s guidance and express repentance — not as a means to attain heaven.
He also told the court that he had personally reviewed several of Mackenzie’s recorded sermons on YouTube, which he described as “extreme and misleading.”
“Selective reading of the Bible distorts its meaning. Scripture must be read in full context to reveal its true message,” he testified.
The prosecution, led by Jami Yamina, also presented other witnesses, including a Tanzanian national whose wife is among the accused.
He told the court that he last communicated with his children in 2023 and later learned that one of the deceased victims exhumed in Malindi had been identified as his child through DNA testing by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
Overcome with emotion, he said he had not visited his parents since his three sons disappeared, explaining that he could not bear to tell them about their missing grandchildren.
Another witness — identified as the 76th to testify — said she had been a devoted member of Mackenzie’s church since 2014 and had stopped seeking medical treatment in obedience to the preacher’s teachings.
She confirmed that followers were discouraged from using modern beauty products, seeking hospital care, or registering for the Huduma Number — doctrines she admitted she still believed in.
The marathon trial, one of Kenya’s largest terrorism-related cases, stems from the Shakahola massacre, in which hundreds of bodies were discovered in shallow graves linked to Mackenzie’s sect in 2023.
The hearing continues before Senior Principal Magistrate Hon. Yusuf Shikanda at the Shanzu Law Courts, with more witnesses expected to testify in the coming days as the prosecution builds its case against Mackenzie and his co-accused.
