A witness in the ongoing Shakahola massacre trial told the Mombasa High Court that he believes his four missing children are still alive, despite DNA and postmortem results linking one set of remains to his family.
The witness, Antony Wyclif Muhoro, aged 44, appeared before the court where pastor Paul Mackenzie and 29 co-accused faced charges related to the deaths of 191 people in an alleged cult operation.
Muhoro stated that investigators from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations informed him in September that DNA profiling matched him to the remains of a seven-year-old girl exhumed from Shakahola, which he struggled to accept.
He told the court that he has not visited the morgue where the body is held, nor has he claimed it.
Prosecution confirmed in court that the DNA analysis and postmortem examination established a 99.99% likelihood that Muhoro and his wife, Millicent Oyayi Awour, were the child's biological parents.
Muhoro said he remains steadfast in his belief that the child is not his daughter. He described himself as a prayerful person and recounted dreams in which he had seen all his children alive.
“Your Honour, I am a prayerful person. In my dreams, I have seen that all my children are alive,” he told the court. “My wife has also told me they are alive and asked me to visit her in prison so she can tell me where they are,” he stated.
Muhoro added that his wife, who is held at Shimo La Tewa Prison, has also told him the children are alive, though she declined to reveal their location.
The witness explained that in March 2023, his wife informed him that Mackenzie's followers in Nairobi had been warned to flee due to fears of election-related violence.
She told him she was travelling to Siaya to care for her ailing mother, but instead went to Malindi with their children, where groups of followers were gathering.
Muhoro said he realized something was wrong after seeing news reports about Mackenzie's arrest for allegedly compelling followers, including children, to fast.
He immediately reported his family missing at Makongeni Police Station and a week later received a call from Malindi Sub-County Hospital that a rescued victim had provided his contact information.
Upon arriving in Malindi, Muhoro found his wife hospitalized and unable to speak. When she regained her voice, she told him she had left the children with a woman identified as Mama Nadia, who has not been traced.
Following this, investigators directed Muhoro to undergo DNA testing, which led to the results presented in court.
