Grandparent’s Battle to Save Grandchildren from Deadly Cult
“Had my son Smart Mwakalama listened to me, today, he would be enjoying his freedom and dining with his children and grandchildren. But when people do not listen, adversity teaches them.”
These are the piercing words of Ms. Constance Sidi, the mother of Mwakalama, who is the second-in-command at Paul Mackenzie’s Good News International Church.
Mwakalama is one of the sixteen individuals arrested alongside Mackenzie. The group is currently in police custody.
According to the registrar’s records, Good News International Ministries was incorporated on September 22, 2010, and issued registration certificate number 32918 and file number 58881.
Smart Deri Mwakalama is listed as the secretary-general.
Mackenzie and his group are under investigation for advising individuals to commit suicide, assisting with suicide, murder, abduction, radicalization, genocide, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud, and money laundering, as well as for being accomplices before or after the fact.
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They were arrested following the discovery of several mass graves and the subsequent exhumation of more than 140 bodies on part of 800 acres said to belong to Mackenzie in Shakahola village, Kilifi County.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations are still carrying out exhumations on the vast land, which is mostly forested.
Sidi recalls warning her sixth-born child not to associate with Mackenzie.
Sidi asserts that the young Mwakalama was a disciplined and obedient boy.
In school, he had an outstanding academic performance, hence the name Smart.
“As a family, we attended sermons at the Anglican Church of Kenya in Malindi’s Takaye, where Mwakalama also had his wedding,” says Sidi.
Mwakalama, according to his mother, was born in 1974 and raised in Malindi.
He attended Takaye primary school, Malindi High, and Gede Secondary School for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations.
Thereafter, he got a job as a receptionist in Malindi town.
His mother is still perplexed as to why a man who never missed a day of school prevented his children from attending school.
“When my son married, he and his wife Mary began attending the Good News International Church of Mackenzie,” recalls Sidi.
However, things took an ugly turn in 2019 when Mwakalama took his children out of school.
“Mwakalama’s first child returned home for midterm break. At the time, she was in Form Three at a secondary school in Nairobi. On the day she was to return to school, her father decided it was time for her to stop her studies. We were furious. This was the same week Mackenzie’s teachings touched on education, claiming it was not biblical,” says Sidi.
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Mwakalama’s other child was to sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams a week later, but it never happened.
She reports that the children attended private schools.
“My grandchildren were bright students. The one in high school had a dream to join university and become a pilot. I tried pleading with my son, Mwakalama, to allow them to go back to school, but my pleas fell on deaf ears.
“At that point, other families and I reported the incident to the police, and Mackenzie was arrested. This happened several times. “Every time he was arrested, he was ultimately released,” says Sidi.
A stitch in time saves nine, says Sidi, and if police had taken matters seriously, a lot could have been avoided.
“They believed those battles against Mackenzie were ours. Look what is happening now. My son is in custody, (and) I cannot find my daughter-in-law, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren,” says a tearful Sidi.
She recalls that in February this year, she visited Shakahola to see where her son lived.
“When we arrived, the area was full of thorny bushes. The terrain resembles a forest, and the roads are impassable. Villages had biblical names like Jerusalem. Minutes later, my son arrived, and we proceed to his residence.
When I asked the children to join me, their parents informed me that they were learning how to fast.
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“This did not sit well with me, so I begged them to allow me to return to Malindi with my grandchildren, but their parents insisted that they would accompany them. That never happened. I regret everything. I wish my son had listened to my advice. At the moment I have no idea if the children are alive or dead.
“My son who is in police custody is tightlipped, he has refused to say a word to us. I was called once and asked to greet him over the phone,” says Sidi.
She blames the government, noting that if the police had handled the complaints against Mackenzie with seriousness, the deaths of dozens of his followers would have been avoided.
Sidi recalls, “Until now, we do not comprehend what this individual (Mackenzie) gave or did to our children; before quitting their jobs, they would give him their paychecks.”
She hopes Mackenzie will be found guilty, incarcerated, and the key discarded.
Grandparent’s Battle to Save Grandchildren from Deadly Cult
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