Inside Malindi hospital where Mackenzie’s survivors rant and rave

A cloud of confusion straddles Malindi Sub County hospital as families from far and wide flock the hospital’s wards and morgue in search of their loved ones following the Shakahola massacre.

Inside the hospital’s female ward, it is a battle for counselors and ward attendants as they handle rescued victims of Pastor Paul Mackenzie’s cult.

The situation is almost similar in the male ward where eight patients were being handled yesterday.

Weak and emaciated, most of the victims draw stark similarities, silence is their unifying factor. Like Siamese twins, they are mean with information about their cult.

In one corner, an emaciated elderly woman is vehemently resisting any attempt by the attendants and counsellors to attend to her.

She struggles to dislodge the needle injecting intravenous fluids into her veins and as a result, she injures her self. The victim appears to warn the attendants that they will face God’s wrath for interfering with her mission to meet Jesus.

“You will know my God who is the truth and the light. Do you think what you are doing to me is right? You are all sinners and you will die and go to hell,” the woman shouts in between wails that echo across the ward.

In another corner is Fatma Salim, who is taking care of her younger sister Shamimu Salim, 27, one of those rescued from the horrors of Shakahola.

Fatma says her sister who disappeared from home in December, said she had gone to her mother-in-law in Mambrui only to learn later that she had gone to the cult together with her three children who all died.

She says her sister was lucky to be rescued but she had shown clear indications she would return to the cult at the slightest opportunity.

Yesterday morning, Shamimu told her sister that she was in the process of meeting Jesus but they interfered with the process after they gave her food.

Still energetic

“She said we had blocked her from meeting Jesus. That she had already met the Angels and they were preparing to take her in but they stopped and said she was still energetic. She said she had started enjoying the party but after they fed her the party stopped. She said the party will continue once they stop feeding her meaning she is ready to go back to the cult once she recovers,” Fatma said in an interview at the hospital.

Another victim, Linda Ikanye, 19, from Kakamega county said she joined the cult after finishing Form Four examination and attaining a D-minus grade.

She said she started following pastor Mackenzie’s preachings on TV while in Nairobi and decided to follow the cult.  Ikanye ended up in Shakahola where she says she would wake up in the morning and cultivate a farm she acquired from Mackenzie.

“I then started fasting and praying for 19 days until people came and took us to hospital,” said Ikanye while expressing regrets.

She said she will not go back to the cult.

“I just want to go back home and start life afresh,” a weak Ikanye said from her hospital bed.