Couple accuses pastor of holding their four sons

23-year-old university student burns his birth and academic certificates, and claims to have recruited his younger siblings into Malindi-based church.

It has almost been a month since Benson Mutimba’s four sons left home under unclear circumstances.

Felix Ndeta, 23, a university student, led a quiet life in Emayala village of Mwitoti, Mumias East Sub-county, with his twin brothers, 13, and another sibling, 10, pupils at Mumias Central Primary School.

Like any other parents, Mr Mutimba, 42, a welder, and his wife Esther Mukungu, a teacher, wanted the best for their children. They worked hard to take them to school, believing that a good education would open doors of endless opportunities for them.

But all that now seems to hang in the balance following their ‘disappearance’ from home on October 4.

Mutimba and his wife blame a Malindi-based televangelist, Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church, for their children leaving home.

 Elusive answers

During an interview at the couple’s Mumias home, the father of five appeared disturbed as he tried to gather his thoughts. He recalled the start of events that would throw the family’s life into a spin and appeared to grope for elusive answers.

Mutimba said trouble with his eldest son started in June during the countrywide Huduma Namba registration. At the time, the second-year accounting student at Kibabii University came home and tried to convince them not to register, claiming it was satanic.

“We all had already registered for the Huduma Namba. But when he came back home from university, he tried to persuade us to go look for the enumerators and get deregistered if we, as a family, wanted to go to heaven. He even went to the area chief and requested we be deregistered,” said Mutimba.

But what followed, Mutimba said, was even more bizarre.

“He (Mr Ndeta) then set ablaze his birth and academic certificates and those of his siblings, as well as their photos. He told us to sell our ancestral land, my workshop and house and take the money to the church and commit our lives to God as the end time was near,” he said.

The young man also made concerted efforts to convince his mother to leave her job and join Mr Mackenzie’s church in Malindi. The couple’s efforts to have him recant the teachings were met with resistance.

More trouble awaited Mutimba when schools re-opened in September. His three other sons refused to report to school three days after the start of the third term.

“I took them to the head teacher, but they told us they were no longer interested in education as it was associated with satan and the beast, and they wanted to join Pastor Mackenzie so that they could go to heaven and escape the mark of the beast (Huduma Namba) introduced by the government,” said Mutimba.

The children appeared to hinge their message on Revelation 13:16-17, which reads: “It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

Mutimba continued: “They declined to go back to class, forcing me to have them booked at Mumias West Police Station. After interrogation, they agreed to go back to school. I shopped for them and they returned to school but still, they were unsettled at home.”

Seen heaven

All along, Ndeta was commuting from home to the university, which was strange as he had a room at the university hostels.

“On October 4, I left them at home taking breakfast as I went to work. At around 6.30pm, my wife informed me that the boys had not returned home. But the head teacher told me no one was at school,” said Mutimba.

According to Mutimba, on October 7, he reported his son missing to Kibabii University’s management. Ndeta’s friends and the university management had no idea where he was.

Kibabii University Chief Security Officer Zablon Mamai confirmed that Ndeta was their student and that the family had informed them of his disappearance.

“The incident happened during the long holiday and we have not seen him since the start of this semester,” he said, adding that the university was working with Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers to help the family locate him.

On the same day, the twins called him later in the evening from a strange number and told him they were praying in Kakamega Forest in preparation to go to heaven soon.

“They accused us of not following Pastor Mackenzie’s teachings and said they would not return home since they had seen heaven,” Mutimba said.

On calling the same number the following day, Ndeta received the call and told his father that he was at the university and was not aware that his younger brothers were missing.

He then switched off the phone and later sent a text message, saying they were all in Malindi at Mackenzie’s church.

That text message introduced a new dilemma for Mutimba. He reported the matter at Mumias West Police Station and was linked to police officers in Malindi. With that, a journey to the coastal town began.

Armed officers

“I travelled to Malindi on October 14. Together with the Malindi OCS and seven armed officers, we went to Mackenzie’s homestead where we found young children playing. We went to the studio (Times TV) and the workers showed us the pastor’s house,” said Mutimba.

He added: “We found him at the doorstep of his house, but he did not allow us in. He, however, agreed that he had my children and said he was teaching them the word of God. He claimed the boys ran away when they saw the officers and advised us to return to the station and he would bring them there.”

But he never did.

The officers told Mutimba to report to the station the following morning.

“I reported to the station but the pastor was not there. The police officers had changed tune and seemed unwilling to help pursue the matter, forcing me to call 999, the police hotline number,” he claimed.

Mutimba said after this, things appeared to move and the pastor, along with 10 young men and women believed to be university students, were held briefly.

He then claimed that Mackenzie warned him off.

“The pastor told me the route I had taken of using police officers to get my children would not bear any fruit, and that I should tell my wife to sell property, come to Malindi with the other child and join him as we prepared for the end times,” said Mutimba.

A senior police officer at the station told him not to pursue the matter further and that they had strict instructions to drop the case “as the pastor was untouchable”.

Mutimba claimed a junior police officer further advised him not to spend the night in Malindi on allegations that his life was in danger.

“The officer advised me to pursue the case from Nairobi but not anywhere in the Coast region, and I immediately left.”

Mutimba’s wife, Ms Mukungu, said all they wanted was for their children to return home.

Mumias Central Primary School head teacher Francis Makau said the boys were not indisciplined.

“The boys have been learning well without any sign of indiscipline. But they said they had been watching Mackenzie on Times TV and had realised that education, Huduma and Nemis numbers were satanic,” he said.

Mackenzie, however, distances himself from claims that he engineered the children’s disappearance, adding that the public was being hoodwinked by the government and politicians to tarnish his name under the guise of fighting radicalisation.

“I received a text from a church security guard that some visitors had come to fellowship with us, but at that time I was in Nairobi. I did not know who they were,” he said.

Mackenzie added that when he interrogated his visitors on his return, they told him they had left their home to join his church after watching him preach on television.

Safe custody

“I received another call from a person who introduced himself as the parent of the children and I told him they were in safe custody,” said Mackenzie.

Malindi Sub-county Police Commander Phillip Wambugu said they had received a complaint from the children’s father, but his officers failed to locate the children at the church premises.

He added that they could only interrogate the pastor but not arrest him because nothing was found in the church related to the children.

Police spokesperson Charles Owino said the matter was under investigation.

In the meantime, Mutimba and Mukungu continue to wait for a breakthrough, hoping that the dawn of each day brings with it a chance to see their children again.

[Nathan Ochunge, Micah Sali and Nehemiah Okwembah]