A Mombasa court has allowed suspected Shakahola cult leader Paul Mackenzie to meet his spouse Rhoda Mumbua and discuss family matters.
Mombasa Chief Magistrate Alex Ithuku allowed Mackenzie’s application to meet Mumbua, who is charged alongside him, under the strict supervision of the Shimo La Tewa Maximum Prison’s authority.
Mackenzie had made an application before the court seeking orders directing the Shimo La Tewa Prisons to arrange a meeting with his wife to discuss family matters including the welfare of their children, their business and his wife's welfare.
"I hereby issue orders to Shimo La Tewa to facilitate the meeting between Mackenzie and his wife," Ithuku ruled.
Relocation
However, the court summoned the officer in charge of the prison to guide the court on his second prayer to be relocated to a different cell.
The suspects were produced before the Mombasa Law Courts for the mention of their case. The suspects, among them 40 women and 55 men, are linked to 429 deaths in the Shakahola massacre.
The suspects are facing 238 counts of manslaughter contrary to Section 202, as read with Section 205 of the penal code.
They allegedly committed the offences on an unknown date between January 2021 and September 2023 in the Shakahola area in Malindi Sub-County within Kilifi County.
They all pleaded not guilty to all counts of manslaughter, which were read to them for four and half hours.
At the same time, the state has been granted more time to facilitate exhibits and witness statements to Shakahola massacre prime suspect Mackenzie and 94 others in their 238 manslaughter case.
The magistrate 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.
"We require more time to separate exhibits and statements based on each of the four cases this will take up to two weeks," he informed the court.
The matter will be mentioned on May 13 this year.
