Shakahola: Chilling renegade's confessions that unveiled family tragedy, cult horrors

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie and his co-accused listen to the judgement during their court appearance at the Mombasa Law Courts in Mombasa on October 19, 2026. [AFP]

When Amos Amanya stood before Justice Diana Kavedza, the white-and-navy-blue striped religious hat on his head immediately set him apart in the courtroom.

Though Good News International Ministries, the church linked to the controversial pastor Paul Makenzi, did not wear hats, the headwear Amanya chose was a deliberate signal from a renegade intent on cooperating.

Known also by his alias Alleluiya, Amanya slipped a note to prosecutors indicating his desire to plead guilty to murder charges. Shortly after, he formally wrote to the court, declaring that his "Damascus moment" was taking too long as his soul burned to reveal the inside story of the Shakahola religious massacre.

Within the cult’s grim hierarchy, Amanya was assigned to dig graves, work as a security guard, and carry dead bodies to their burial sites.

Yet his most painful burden was intensely personal: in his confession, he narrated bearing the scars of burying three of his own children, while three others remained missing and presumed dead.

Now a grandfather through a surviving daughter who fled Shakahola, Amanya expressed deep regret before the court, insisting that despite years of radicalization, he had not lost his faith.

In the courtroom, the tragedy of Shakahola brought a devastating end to Amanya's family unit. He lamented to Judge Kavedza that his family had turned him into an enemy, pointing to his wife, Ann Anyoso Alukwe, 50, who was charged alongside him and disowned him for confessing and his brother David Ambwaya whom he accused of bad blood after.

Pleading for forgiveness, Amanya recounted how biblical teachings were corrupted into urging followers to fast to death, leaving him an unmarried bachelor with only one surviving child.

He testified that even as they moved into Shakahola, he had loved his wife, never laid a hand on her, nor betrayed her for fear of sinning, and that a spark of love for her still lingered despite her resentment.

“I ask the court for forgiveness. I was misguided by the teachings charged from the Bible, which told people to fast to death. I have suffered loss. All my children are gone. My wife has decided that I am no longer her husband because I have confessed to the offence. I am now left with only one child. I am now a bachelor. I ask the court to forgive me,” he lamented.

Amanya told the court of efforts to keep him entangled and the struggle for spiritual clarity persisted even in custody. In remand, as he sought truth in the Bible. He claimed a fellow inmate named Asena, sent by Makenzie, tore pages from Amanya’s holy book to deliberately distort its meaning. Believing Jesus would forgive his grave sins, Amanya sought atonement and communicated his desire to plea bargain with the State in October 2025 in Shanzu, after expert witness Bishop Anyanga deconstructed Makenzie’s doctrines.

 “Asena tore some pages from my Bible, which is confirmation that he deliberately misinterpreted the Bible,” he testified, adding that although he was aware of the grave sins he and other Makenzie inner circle members had committed, he knew Jesus would forgive him, and that is why he took a step to atone for his past.

He stated that even as they went to Shakahola, he still loved her but the radicalization split them. The man insisted that although she felt betrayed and hated him for confessing, his spark of love for her still lingered on.

 Amanya’s confession, he said was to be forgiven by men and God.

“ I am asking her for forgiveness although you told me that I am no longer your husband for confessing, I still ask you to forgive me. I have lost everything. I have lost everything,” continued Amanya.

When his wife took the stand, her testimony laid bare the family's ruinous trajectory. She narrated that Amanya sold their plot in Nairobi to settle in 'Galilaya' before being relocated by George Mwaura to Chakama.

After their savings ran out, Mwaura took the family away alongside a chicken, and Amanya handed Mwaura Sh 20,000 for food before being instructed to travel to Shakahola for a single bag of maize.

 Anyoso alleged that Amanya took the entire bag for himself, abandoning her and the children to fend for themselves. Working in Chakama and relying on flour from white people, Anyoso turned to prayer and fasting whenever food was unavailable.

The harrowing sequence of her children's deaths was recounted with stark detail.

Five of the deceased children were under 18 years of age.

Their mother, also a convict, testified that the first child succumbed at an event she described as "sleeping" after three days of fasting, followed by the second child a day later.

A third child broke the fast while she was away but died on the sixth day, with the remaining children dying sequentially on the seventh and ninth days.

Anyoso told the court she could not stop the deaths because the children had committed to fast to death, noting that the children had even dug their own graves and informed their father, while claiming that a visitation from the 'holy spirit' and her reading of Jeremiah 1:4 created a divine command above her parental duty

The mother of seven alleged a strained relationship, caused by, among others a confession by his daughter that Amanya’s brother, David Ambwaya, 52, had tried to have a relationship with her. “ I asked DW5 why he was trying to commit incest with my daughter, but he denied. He had written a letter to my daughter, which I produced to them as an exhibit,” she narrated.

Anyoso also told the court that she, Amanya, had given Mwaura Sh 20,000 to buy food. She claimed that Mwaura told them to go to Shakahola to get mise, which was one bag.

According to her, Amanya took the whole bag and allegedly left her and the children to fend for themselves.

She stated that whenever they did not get food, they would fast, and other times, they would pray.

“I continued working in Chakama so as to feed my kids. I would also get flour from white people. Whenever I had no food, I would tell the kids to pray. We would therefore fast in order to look for the face of Jesus. Praying would help me to get food. I could not have stopped the children from fasting. They had made a commitment to fast to death. Jesus knew the children from my womb. I supported the children’s faith. I don’t know where their father was. I don’t think it was wrong for the kids to fast to death since it was their decision. I was happy with their decision since they were on the right path. We had read the Bible together, and they understood what they were doing,” she said.

She also claimed that ‘ holy spirit’ visited the children and moved them to the deathly fast.

Anyoso painted a picture of a prayerful family before they joined Makenzie in 2019, just before the church was closed. “ They had strong faith,” she narrated, adding that her only surviving daughter allegedly dropped out of school out of harassment by other girls whom she dubbed lesbians.

She confessed disliking school too, adding that she never implored upon her to return.

“ So, when my child told me, what had happened at school, I lost interest in going back to school. The other children refused school after listening to the teachings of the church. We also did not have school fees. Initially, my husband was working as a security guard, then he started collecting garbage. He had bought a plot and constructed a house. It was during the construction of the house that he stopped paying fees for the kids,” she continued.

The dead were referred to as heroes.

His brother-in-law did not take his family to Shakahola. Ambwaya testified that he joined the church from Vihiga in November 2020.

The father of four is married to Maureen Awino and have four children. They did not join him as Awino was not moved by his faith.

“ I was so saved and I am still saved,” he claimed adding that he went to Shakahola, just like his brother Amanya to buy land. He also stated that Mwaura was central to it.

He too was a security guard in Shakahola.

“ I did not have a child in Shakahola so my business was to take care of myself. My neighbours were Haji Kombo, Amos, and Geoffrey. It’s my brother who was told by George Mwaura that there was land in Shakahola. I used to attend United Pentecostal church in Nairobi. I joined the GNI Ministries when it was called Times TV team,” he said, adding that he was not fasting, instead he ate rice.

He also stated that he did not know what happened to his nephews and nieces. According to him, Amanya and Anyoso had a nice family but differences broke the marriage apart while they were at ‘jangwani’ and jealousy by his brother over properties he had left in Nairobi caused rifts between them.

He insisted that they were not told to fast but he did so for 11 days when they were arrested. According to him, the arrest was salvation.

“I left my family and my goods in Nairobi, so there was a bit of jealousy. It’s not true that I wanted to marry my niece hence the dispute,” he concluded.