The principal suspects in the 2023 Shakahola massacre has confessed to participating in the crime that resulted in the death of over 400 people including his two children.
Enos Amanya, alias Hallelujah, one of 29 accused persons, pleaded guilty to 191 counts of murder before the High Court in Mombasa, after nearly two years of denial of culpability.
He served as a grave digger and provided security within Shakahola forest, where he enforced Mackenzie’s teachings and ensured absolute obedience among followers.
The offences were committed on separate dates between January 2021 and September 2023.
Amanya confessed witnessing the deaths of his children Ejah Nyaleso and Senaida and participating in their burial alongside his wife, Anne Anyoso Alukhwe, who is also an accused person.
TOTAL OBEDIENCE
Only one of his children, Izrael Veronica, survived after rejecting the teachings and leaving Shakahola to seek employment, he told the court.
He shared how Mackenzie once declared that entry into heaven required total obedience, and ordered dissenters subjected to brutal punishments, including being tied with binding wire and beaten with sticks and tree branches until death.
The plea bargaining that will see the accused person turned into a State witness and granted a lesser sentence is expected to offer a major boost in prosecution’s bid to unravel criminals behind the mass deaths linked to self proclaimed preacher Paul Mackenzie.
WELL COORDINATED
Appearing before Justice Diana Kavedza, Amanya admitted acting in concert with Mackenzie and other co-accused persons in what appeared a well coordinated and deliberate scheme that resulted in the hundreds of deaths.
The court heard that the sect used coded language and referred to bodies as “fertilizer,” burials as “planting,” and dying as “taking a jet” to meet Jesus.
The court Friday convicted Amanya on his own plea of guilty after confirming his testimony as true.
SHIMO LA TEWA
Judge Kavedza directed the Coast Regional Probation and Aftercare Service to prepare a comprehensive victim impact assessment report to guide sentencing, including consideration of the surviving child.
The officer in charge of Shimo La Tewa Maximum Security Prison was also directed to isolate the convict for his safety.
Pre-sentencing hearings for victims’ witnesses will run from February 2 to February 6, 2026.
