The hearing of a Shakahola massacre children matter involving Pastor Paul Mackenzie and 38 other accused persons, who are parents of child victims rescued from Shakahola forest, resumed Tuesday before the Tononoka Children Court in Mombasa.
The prosecution called five witnesses who testified before the Principal Magistrate Hon. Nelly Chepchirchir.
Among the witnesses were four expert witnesses psychologists/counselors who explained to the court how they were asked to provide psychosocial support to the children rescued from Shakahola.
The support aided in addressing the trauma and mental, emotional, and social issues stemming from experiences in Shakahola. The psychologist informed the court that they conducted multiple group therapy sessions with the minors who had presented trauma and traumatic grief-related symptoms in order to gain their trust.
The expert witnesses reported that the children exhibited minimal, moderate, and severe trauma as a result of horrific experiences in Shakahola, which included fasting.
The counselors explained to the court the various psychological impacts of the trauma that the children rescued from Shakahola exhibited.
The court heard that some children were experiencing distressing thoughts of images they didn’t want to think about.
Some had bad dreams and nightmares, feeling that the experiences were happening at times and exhibiting bad feelings like anger, fear, cruelty, and shame.
The court heard that the majority of the children seen by the counselors were not attending school because their parent(s) followed the church’s teaching on Times TV against education or because Pastor Paul Mackenzie directed people not to send their children to school because it was ungodly, citing that even Jesus did not go to school.
In another testimony, the prosecution’s 41st witness in the case, a boda boda rider from Banana in Kiambu, explained how he disagreed with his wife after she started following the preaching on Time TV, which is alleged to have been teaching against education and going to the hospital.
Charles Anjanja told the court how her wife had left home with his four children for her hometown in Eldoret and then for Mombasa. He narrated how her wife returned home one day with three out of the four children, but after three days left with only two and was never heard from again until her death.
Paul Mackenzie and 38 others were charged with 17 counts of offences under the Children Act 2012, the Prevention of Torture Act 2017, and the Basic Education Act 2013.
These charges include two counts of subjecting a child to torture with an alternative count of assault causing actual bodily harm, nine charges of cruelty to a child, and six counts of infringing a child’s right to education.
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