A prisoner serving a 50-year sentence at Shimo La Tewa Maximum Security Prison has told the Mombasa High Court that detectives informed him a mobile line registered in his name had been used to send money to controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie, who is held in the same prison.

The testimony came on Tuesday in the trial of Mackenzie and seven co-accused over the deaths of 28 people whose bodies were exhumed from shallow graves in Kwa Binzaro, Kilifi County. The case is before Justice Wendy Kagendo.

Prosecutors allege that Mackenzie, while in custody, used phone numbers registered in other people's names to contact his co-accused, instructing them to intensify his doomsday teachings and to urge followers in Kwa Binzaro to fast. The fasting, the State says, led to the deaths. The allegations are yet to be proven in court.

The inmate's account

The witness, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in 2024, told the court he registered five Safaricom lines to build a mobile lending profile and qualify for loans. He admitted keeping SIM cards while in prison but denied using them to make calls or send mobile money.

He said he had occasionally lent one of the lines to a fellow inmate who borrowed money from him to make calls, and that the same inmate also borrowed handsets from other prisoners. He told the court he knew Mackenzie only through media coverage of the Shakahola deaths.

What the searches found

Prison officers described a series of surprise searches carried out after intelligence that inmates, including Shakahola murder suspects, were hiding prohibited items:

  • Searches on August 30 and September 19, 2025 recovered mobile phones and SIM cards from inmates' belongings
  • On September 20, 2025, DCI officers searched Mackenzie's cell and recovered a notebook, handwritten notes and a Bible
  • The notebook allegedly contained phone numbers and identification details recorded under the name of a woman who later testified virtually from Kisumu
  • The witness's cell yielded two Bibles with handwritten names and phone contacts, and two SIM cards were recovered a day later

The woman whose identity details were allegedly used told the court she was contacted by detectives in 2025 and had no knowledge of the registration or use of the SIM card in question.

Separate from Shakahola

The Kwa Binzaro case is distinct from the Shakahola massacre trial, in which Mackenzie and 28 co-accused were recently convicted over the deaths of 191 people, 190 of them children. The Kwa Binzaro deaths came to light in 2025, raising questions about how the preacher's influence continued after his arrest.

The hearing continues before Justice Kagendo.

Photo: ODPP Kenya via The Eastleigh Voice. Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.