Mother stopped taking children to school, hospital after joining Mackenzie church - man tells court

Abel Kaire Oyalo was one of three witnesses who shared harrowing accounts of the events linked to Mackenzie’s Good News Church.

Appearing virtually before Justice Diana Kavedza at the Mombasa High Court, the prosecution presented the day’s first witness, Oyalo, whose deeply emotional testimony momentarily brought proceedings to a standstill.

Speaking from Kisii, Oyalo recounted how his once stable family life crumbled after his wife abandoned their Kenya Assemblies of God (KAG) church in Gachie, Kiambu County, and embraced Mackenzie’s teachings.

“Suddenly, my wife’s lifestyle changed,” he told the silent courtroom. “She stopped wearing trousers, shaved her hair, and stopped taking the children to hospital and school.”

Oyalo narrated how his wife eventually left their Kiambu home with their children and relocated to Shakahola. When he traced her in March 2023, she refused to return home, instead accusing him of ‘hindering her faith,’ insisting she had moved on, and urging him to find someone else to marry.

“She then stopped communicating. I have never seen my wife again.”

The witness's pain resurfaced as he recounted the heartbreaking moment in 2025 when government officials contacted him to collect the body of one of his four children who had gone missing alongside his wife, which had been positively identified through DNA analysis.

“I managed to recognise my daughter by looking at her teeth,” he told the court.

The Prosecution then presented the next witness, namely Julius Mnyambo, brother to the late accused person, Edison Safari Mnyambo, who explained to the court that his deceased brother, then a carpenter from Malindi, had relocated with his family to Shakahola.

Edison fell ill while in custody and later died at Coast General Hospital, after which his body was released to the family for burial. One of the deceased’s children, the witness told the court, was also recovered and handed over to the family.

The other witness, Jackline Mumbe Mary, shared an insight into how unsuspecting individuals were gradually persuaded into Mackenzie’s fold.

Mumbe said she relocated to Mombasa to live with her sister, Monicah Mary, who slowly indoctrinated her into Mackenzie’s teachings.

“My sister told me there’s a pastor who believes plaiting hair is an abomination,” Mumbe said. At the time, she was a congregant of the Africa Inland Church (AIC).

“She showed me Mackenzie’s teachings on Times TV. I shaved my hair and joined the church after listening to the sermons, but I later quit because of internal church conflicts.”

Her sister later disappeared and remains unaccounted for.