Mackenzie’s son, Dan Paul Mackenzie, said he labored as a cameraperson in the church. “The children would sit at the back, adults in the middle, and everyone would sing worship songs all morning.”

The pastor would begin his fiery sermons at midday, some of which included “casting out demons”.

The principal church shut down in 2019 and Paul Mackenzie moved to Shakahola forest, encouraging his devotees to comply with him.

Peter Shukrani, 23, says his mom relocated to Shakahola with him at the time. He began going to Mackenzie’s church when he was eight years previous and described him as his “spiritual father”, including that he would “never say a bad word about him”.

When in the forest, Shukrani fell sick and his situation deteriorated because treatment was banned.

“My mother would throw away all the medicine I was supposed to take because she believe that only God could heal me,” Shukrani said.

The neighborhood was described as mud homes scattered across the huge forest. “We lived a quiet normal life, fasting for a few days then having a small meal,” Shukrani said.

By March 2023 when the first stays were found by native herders, a whole bunch of folks had died. “We would carry someone out of the forest but they were so frail that they would die in our arms,” defined Salim Karisa, one of the gravediggers.

Shukrani was one of the males rescued from the forest in March 2023.

He was sick and bed-ridden for weeks until that level, but his situation worsened because his mom would throw away all the treatment he wanted to recuperate.

“My mother believed Pastor Mackenzie’s doctrine that medicine was evil,” Shukrani said.

“I would have died if I wasn’t rescued from Shakahola forest.”