“Wakikupata unahepa, unanyongwa hapo”: Survivors speak on Pastor Mackenzie’s cult

A Kisumu resident has been watching with mixed emotions as controversial cleric Paul Mackenzie is finally brought to justice.

After losing his three sons, Morris Yimbo, a resident of Kanyakwar, Kisumu, became a victim of the pastor with a cult following.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yimbo’s brother Wickliffe Omondi alias “Waimoi,” according to Yimbo, was at the center of his sons’ decision to join the group.

He added that Godwin Maxwell and Collins Lijodi followed in the footsteps of his eldest son Vincent Lihanda, who was the first to vanish from home without leaving a trace.

The upset father claimed that his firstborn son started traveling on gospel missions with his uncle-turned-recruiter during the COVID-19 lockdown, which caused him to grow distant from him.

He noted that after trying to correct him, Lihanda ran away from home for a second time as soon as the constraints were relaxed.

He traveled to Lamu with his uncle this time, and they were together. Later, Lihanda’s younger siblings would follow them, beginning Yimbo’s three years of suffering.