Police officers drawn from Kilifi County on Monday night, May 1, arrested Paul Mackenzie's wife, Rhoda Mumbua Maweu, in connection with the Shakahola massacre.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, sources privy to the matter affirmed the arrest, noting that Mumbua will be interrogated as an accomplice in the radicalisation and indoctrination of the faithful.
The source confirmed that Mackenzie's wife will also be treated as a witness in the case, having been involved in the day-to-day church operations.
Detectives flushed out Mumbua from her hideout in Mtwapa, Kilifi County, as she had fled to seek refuge at her aunt's homestead since investigations began.
Her name surfaced after a comprehensive analysis of Mackenzie's phone records and interrogations of suspects, prompting detectives to list her as a person of interest.
Police reportedly found several compromising text messages between Mackenzie and his wife in the series leading to the pastor's arrest on April 15, 2023.
Mackenzie, who managed to keep his private life reclusive from the limelight, married Mumbua after the death of his second wife in 2017.
At the time, Mackenzie's second wife left behind four children. Mackenzie's first wife, however, died in 2009 and left behind two children.
The government, on Monday, May 1, commenced the post-mortem examination on 110 bodies that were recovered from the Shakahola forest.
Led by Government Chief Pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor, the autopsies will be conducted at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital Mortuary.
Interior CS Kithure Kindiki confirmed that search and rescue operations were ongoing in the forest to retrieve the survivors. He affirmed that aerial surveillance was deployed to complement ground troops.
At the same time, President William Ruto noted that a framework would be developed with spiritual leaders to tame false pastors.
Further, he pointed out that a Judicial Commission of Inquiry would be formed in a week to investigate the Shakahola massacre.
"We are Christians who believe in God. Some use religion to destroy other people and also other destructive means.
"To ensure that what happened in Shakahola will never happen again, we are forming a Judicial Commission of Inquiry so that we can get to the bottom of what really happened in Shakahola with (pastor Paul) Mackenzie and all his collaborators," he stated.
