Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen has vowed to keep preacher Paul Mackenzie away from other inmates. He said Mackenzie could radicalise fellow prisoners if allowed to mix freely with them, Capital FM reported.
Murkomen spoke on Sunday at a church service in Ikolomani Constituency, Kakamega. He said the government would provide a secluded area for Mackenzie to serve his sentence. "We will provide a secluded area to hold him to make sure that there will be no radicalisation again by the type of Mackenzies in this country," he said.
According to Capital FM, the remarks followed intelligence reports that Mackenzie had allegedly tried to radicalise fellow inmates and police officers in custody. The government fears other prisoners could adopt his teachings. It worries they could set up similar movements after their release.
The pledge comes days after the High Court in Mombasa sentenced Mackenzie to 200 years in prison over the Shakahola massacre. Capital FM reported that the killings claimed 191 lives, including 190 children and one adult. Justice Diana Kavedza-Mochache gave him consecutive 100-year sentences. They covered 183 counts of murder by starvation and eight counts of direct homicide.
The court found that Mackenzie ran a system of religious indoctrination. He told followers to starve themselves and their children in preparation for what he described as meeting Jesus. Prosecutors relied on forensic evidence, medical reports and witness testimony. They showed the fasting was enforced through intimidation, violence and confinement. Twenty-eight co-accused were also convicted and received sentences of between 10 and 160 years.
Murkomen praised the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Judiciary for securing the conviction. He said the government would take firm measures against religious extremism. It would do so without undermining the constitutional right to freedom of worship, he added.
The Shakahola tragedy came to light in 2023, when investigators found mass graves in Kilifi County. They later recovered hundreds of bodies from the forest. Mackenzie still faces separate proceedings over other alleged offences.