MOMBASA, Kenya, Apr 25 – A Mombasa Court on Thursday allowed cult leader Paul Mackenzie and his wife, Rhodah Mumbua, to meet in prison under strict supervision of the prison’s authority.
Mackenzie had prayed to the court to direct the authorities at Shimo La Tewa Prisons to arrange a meeting between him, his wife and also their children to discuss family matters.
Mackenzie had also requested to be transferred to a different cell.
Mombasa Chief Magistrate Alex Ithuku allowed Mackenzi’s application to meet his spouse.
However, the court summoned the officer in charge of Shimo la Tewa prison to guide the court on his second prayer for Mackenzie to be relocated to a different cell.
Mackenzie and his 94 other co-accused (40 women and 55 men) are linked to 429 deaths of people who died in Shakahola from starvation.
They are facing facing 238 counts of manslaughter contrary to Section 202, as read with Section 205 of the penal code. They allegedly in pursuance of a suicide pact for the object of their death and others not before court jointly killed 238 people.
At the same time, the DPP was granted more time to facilitate exhibits and witness statements to the Shakahola massacre prime suspect Mackenzie and 94 others.
Chief Magistrate Ithuku allowed the prosecution’s application to separate exhibits and witness statements in the case from the tonnes of evidentiary materials in the other three cases facing Mackenzie and his co-accused.
Principal Prosecution Counsel Alex Gituma told. Ithuku that investigators had put together exhibits and witness statements in one master bundle for all four cases.
He submitted that a pre-trial meeting between the prosecution and the investigation team resolved to separate exhibits and statements based on each of the four cases.
Gituma, who was holding brief for the prosecution team, led Senior Assistant DPP Peter Kiprop, prayed for two weeks for the tedious exercise to be completed.
The exercise involved re-arranging thousands of exhibits and witness statements following each of the four cases before supplying Mackenzie and co-accused persons through their counsels.
Parties also agreed that each of the three counsels would receive a copy of the prosecution’s exhibits and testimonies.
Ithuku further directed that the hearing of the case will be conducted on a day-to-day basis to accord justice to Mackenzie and his co-Shakahola massacre suspects who have been denied bond.
