Day cult leader Makenzi dared the State to close his Kilifi church

But when Makenzi took to his "stronghold" that Sunday, Mutindika became the subject of his sermon. He was in a foul mood and was going to spit it out.

"Mr Mutindika, is it the education that helps you breathe? Mutindika, is it education which has sustained you from birth? Is it education which helps you expel your waste when you go to help yourself? Be warned Mutindika, you are not attacking Pastor Makenzi. You are fighting the one who sent me," he said as the worshipers clapped and shouted, urging him on.

That day, Makenzi's gospel reading was drawn from an article in Taifa Leo edition of July 6, 2018, whose headline screamed: "Wazazi waonywa dhidi ya kanisa linalopotosha."(Parents warned against the church which is misleading worshippers).

He read it word for word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, stopping only to dismiss or to challenge it with Bible verses read out by one of his followers.

"Mutindika is not God, he was born just yesterday. The Bible has been there for centuries and the word has been there from creation. Mutindika, respect the Bible or else....," he warned.

Makenzi compared Mutindika's protests to the noises made by wild dogs, asking his worshippers to ignore them. He warned those who do not follow his teachings, and instead listen to Mutindika, of grave consequences.

"If what I am telling you is the message from God, and you do not listen to me, just wait and see. Only that it may be too late for you," he said.

Pastor Paul Makenzi in the dock at Malindi Law Courts. [File, Standard]

"Have you seen me in your homes stopping you from taking your children to school? Have I stood by you and stopped you from taking medicine? I preach about many other things, including against fornication. I don't follow you around to ensure you do not fornicate," he preached.

Makenzi was not done with Mutindika. He had one of the congregants read the constitutional provisions on freedom of conscience, religion, belief and opinion. He gave commentaries in between the readings.

When the congregant who appeared quite knowledgeable on the law read the part about every person having the right to "manifest any religion or belief through worship, practice, teaching or observance," Makenzi was elated:

"Eheheeeeee.... ", he shouted, throwing his hands up in the air: "to manifest.... even if we want to pray in a somersault position, we are allowed by the constitution to do so."

They read a few other constitutional provisions, with Makenzi saying Mutindika did not even know the same constitution he was preaching on. He dared him to take him to court, and he would vanquish him without even deploying any legal service.

"We believe education is evil and we are allowed by the constitution to believe so, and to teach others to adopt the same belief," the person who was reading the constitution concluded.

The previous year, Makenzi had been arrested twice and hauled in court on charges of running an illegal educational institution, failing to take his children to compulsory education and radicalisation among others.

In the first case on running an illegal education institution, he was fined Sh20,000 which he paid and walked away. In the second case which involved radicalisation, failure to take children to school, and trampling the rights of a child, the case collapsed on its own for want of evidence.

"Nobody will stop this gospel," Makenzi declared on July 8, 2018.