A controversial Kilifi based televangelist, Pastor Paul Mackenzie, was on Wednesday arrested in connection with the death of two children at Shakahola village.
This comes after a Malindi court ordered exhuming of two bodies of minors who are suspected to have died due to starvation and suffocation with an attempt to please God.
Also listed as suspects in the children’s death are their parents Mr Isaac Ngala and Ms Emily Kaunga.
According to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) the children were killed by their mother through starvation and suffocation with the intention of becoming ‘heroes before God after death’.
The mother is a church member of Pastor Mackenzie’s church.
According to the investigating officer Joseph Yator drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation in Malindi, police managed to rescue a third child.
It is this child that narrated the sufferings his two siblings underwent after being starved for some time before their mother suffocated them to death.
The three are suspected of burying the two minors on March 16 and 17, respectively, in a shallow grave at Shakahola village, Kilifi County.
“The government pathologist and officers from DCI Malindi will supervise the exhumation exercise, and the sub-county police commander and area OCS will provide security. Exhumed bodies will be examined, and DNA and toxicological samples taken,” the DPP said.
According to the children’s’ grandfather Francis Wanje, his grandchildren have died after their parents received teachings from the pastor, who forced the children to fast until they died.
He continued to say the pastor has been claiming that there are disasters that may be witnessed in the near future and therefore it is good for the children to die so that they can inherit the kingdom of heaven.
He was talking to journalists during the operation to arrest the pastor.
” Two of my grandchildren have already been buried, and the one who has been left was already preparing him to die and rest. Their pastor told them that there are disasters that are coming soon and they should not be given food until they die. My grandchildren died in those weird circumstances and now we are happy detectives have arrested the pastor,” said Mr Wanje.
Mr Mackenzie and his wife Joyce Mwikamba were charged with promoting radicalization in 2017.Also they were charged with failing to provide basic education.
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