Nairobi — Mother to controversial self-styled healer Paul Mackenzie has denied her son's involvement in cult murders saying the 'preacher' is being targeted by those out to disposes him of the church he leads.
Speaking to the press as security agencies prepared to mount a case under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2012, Mackenzie's mother said her son had no links to the Shakahola mass graves from where dozens of bodies of people believed to have been starved to death were unearthed.
Anastacia Mwele claimed her family is being targeted by a section of the Good News International Church believers bitter over her son's prosperity in the religious industry.
"I am deeply pained for how the police are mistreating my son calling him a murderer. Paul is a kind man and completely incapable of committing such acts," she said on Saturday.
Mwele said Mackenzie closed his church doors in 2019 and moved to Shakahola Forest to venture into farming. She however acknowledged that she had not set foot in the 800 acre of land claimed to be owned by the cultic pastor.
"I am yet to visit that piece of land. But I do believe that my son's preaching id based on Biblical teachings that Jesus commanded humanity to abide to," she stated.
'Malicious probe'
Mwele questioned how the said believers could be gullible to be instructed not feed.
"If indeed he was a killer, then he should have begun killing and sacrificing me, his own mother. Why did he not murder me then?" she rhetorically quipped.
"If I tell you not to eat to the point you meet your death, will you accept? I am not just defending him, that is the plain truth. He is not a killer. And if what I am saying is not true, then I accept my death. Tomorrow I will not wake up. Christ, come take me!"
Mackenzie's brother also shared similar sentiments reiterating that his older brother is being framed and that bodies being exhumed at the crime scene could be bodies of the villagers residing nearby and not victims as asserted by police.
"Perhaps the bodies being exhumed could be linked to lost loved ones of the villagers occupying that land. Some are not even recent deaths. What the police are doing to my brother is unfair and it is totally unlawful," he said.
The pastor's family is convinced that Mackenzie is the target of malice.
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"All this fracas is just a way of using Mackenzie as a scapegoat in order to put him behind bars. I have never found any fault in my son," Mwele echoed.
Links to Pastor Ezekiel
The family however owned up to Mackenzie's links to another controversial televangelist Ezekiel Odero arrested on Thursday.
The leader of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church was arraigned at Shanzu Law Courts in Mtwapa where he faced charges on murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalization, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering over links to the Shakahola mass graves.
Mackenzie's family said Odero was friends with Mackenzie and transacted business in 2019 when he (Odero) purchased a TV station (Times TV) and a church vehicle from Mackenzie. Police quoted the transaction at Sh500,000.
"I got wind of their friendship when Pastor Ezekiel came home to purchase a church lorry and the TV station. That is the only day I saw him (Odero)," said the brother.
The Communication Authority (CA) Friday suspended the television stations owned by Pastor Paul Mackenzie and Pastor Ezekiel Odero both of whom face charges of mass murders.
Ezra Chiloba, the Director General of the authority, accused the two television stations of violating broadcasting standards by "airing inappropriate content on exorcism during the watershed period".
At least 103 bodies have been exhumed from Shakahola mass graves with authorities saying the exercise is still ongoing.
