Shakahola deaths: Air hostess quit well-paying job, donated Sh7 million to church

Beatrace Anjete Charles quit her 11-year career as an air hostess last month and relocated to Shakahola to join Pastor Paul Makenzie's denomination. She relocated with her sister and niece and joined their mother who was a long-time follower of Makenzi.

According to his brother-in-law, Abbas Ntunde, Beatrice booked an air ticket from Nairobi to Malindi on April 8 and took a matatu direct to Shakahola.
''Together with my wife and three-year-old daughter, they left our Nairobi home without a word and traveled to Shakahola village in search of the pastor and his church," said Ntunde, adding that their mother had been living in Mackezie's land for the past one year.

He also alleged that his sister-in-law sold her land worth Sh7 million and took the money to Pastor Makenzi as tithes and offerings.
''My wife too left her military job after her sister quit her job and they left," he said.
He has been camping in Shakahola for the past week in the hope of meeting his loved ones.
Ntunde says Beatrice schooled in Taita and later relocated to Nairobi before securing a job with an international airline.
He also says Beatrice was earning approximately Sh410,000 per month.
"She was earning US$41,000 per month," said Ntunde.

She ditched Sh410,000 salary per month

One of the close friends of Beatrice Anjete narrated in Mombasa yesterday that she received her at the Malindi Airport on April 8 this year on arrival from Qatar where she worked, but she was not in her usual jovial mood. The friend who talked to our team in Likoni said Anjete invited her to travel to Malindi from Mombasa for a meeting. But on arrival, she did not disclose the subject of discussion even after having a meal together at a local hotel.

"She invited me to meet her in Malindi on arrival from Qatar. She was not in her right mood though. We had a meal together and she gave me a gift but her father joined us before she could tell me why she wanted to meet me," said the woman who requested not to be named.
Anjete was her family's breadwinner and was to stay in Kenya for four days before returning to Doha. Her friend said she has been receiving calls from friends in Qatar inquiring about her whereabouts.

She said that she later learned that the air hostess' eight-year-old son who used to live with his grandparents was one of two children who died at Shakahola.
"I learned later that her son, Jason Elisha, had starved to death in Shakahola. I do not understand why she did not talk about it when we met," she said.
The woman said she and Anjete were friends since their school days when they lived in Likoni, Mombasa.
She disclosed that Anjete's family are long-time followers of the Good News International Church and that they abandoned their house in the Bububu area in Likoni and built a new home within Shakahola Forest near Makenzi's property.

"After meeting my friend, she would not answer my calls and at one time her father, who is known to me, answered on her behalf. I met the father on April 14 on a ferry in Likoni but he told me my friend went back to Qatar," she said.
The woman believes Anjete is still alive and called on the police to comb the preacher's vast farm to rescue her.
She said that her friend's brother-in-law, Abbas Ntunde, inspected the bodies that have so far been recovered by the police and he did not identify that of the air hostess.