Teachers from Busia and Siaya counties have testified in the Mombasa High Court how several students disappeared from school in 2025, with prosecution evidence linking their absence to a fasting camp in Kwa Binzaro, Kilifi County, where 28 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves.
The evidence was presented in the ongoing murder trial involving controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and seven co-accused, who face charges linked to the alleged killings in Kwa Binzaro, located about four kilometres from Shakahola.
Appearing before Lady Justice Wendy Kagendo, the teachers told the court that some of the children attended school during the first term of 2025 but failed to return after the April school holiday.
Jael Atieno Ochieng’s disappearance
Dishon Shihundu, the senior principal of St. Peter’s Budokomi Secondary School in Busia County, told the court that Jael Atieno Ochieng, a Form Two student, went missing from school on March 19, 2025.
Shihundu said he received a letter from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) dated December 16, seeking confirmation of Jael’s enrolment after she disappeared alongside her siblings.
In response, he provided certified copies of her admission and attendance records, academic report and certificate of merit.
The principal described Jael as a bright student who had excelled at county level, earning an opportunity to represent her school at a regional Science and Engineering Fair.
He further testified that repeated attempts to contact her parents were unsuccessful, prompting him to send students from her neighbourhood to establish her whereabouts.
The students reportedly informed him that Jael had left home with her parents two days earlier.
In August 2025, Shihundu said he learnt from Jael’s brother that she had travelled with her parents to Kwa Binzaro and was feared dead.
The court also heard that DNA analysis identified one of the bodies exhumed from Kwa Binzaro as that of Jael’s father, whose remains were subsequently released to the family for burial.
Three Siaya pupils failed to return to school
The second prosecution witness, Salma Olayo Anyitu, a senior teacher and games teacher at Goro Primary School in Siaya County, testified that three pupils—Florence Akinyi, Christine Achieng and Mary Atieno—did not return to school for the second term.
Anyitu told the court that the DCI Homicide Unit had written to the school on December 16, 2025, seeking confirmation of the learners’ enrolment.
She confirmed that the three pupils had joined the school on January 8, 2024, after transferring from other schools in Siaya and Kisumu counties.
The teacher said she regularly interacted with the pupils, particularly Mary, a Grade Six learner who was talented in athletics and excelled in ball games.
She added that the children’s mother had regularly visited the school during the first term to pay levies and attend school meetings.
According to the evidence presented, the three pupils travelled with their parents and three other siblings—Shadrack Ochieng, Esther Achieng and Nathan—from their rural home to Kwa Binzaro on March 30, 2025, to participate in fasting.
The court heard that DNA analysis had since identified three bodies exhumed from the site as those of Mary Atieno, Florence Akinyi and Shadrack Ochieng.
ECDE manager confirms two children’s enrolment
The third witness, Jackline Awiti Akinyi, the manager of Kamalumbe Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centre in Siaya County, presented records confirming that Shadrack Ochieng and Esther Akinyi had been pupils at the institution.
She told the court that Shadrack was enrolled in PP1 while Esther was in PP2.
Akinyi further testified that, upon making inquiries, she learnt from the children’s grandmother that they had travelled from their rural home on March 30, 2025, with their four other siblings to Kwa Binzaro.
The testimonies form part of the prosecution’s efforts to establish the identities and movements of the missing children and connect them to the alleged killings at the fasting camp.
Mackenzie faces multiple court cases
The Kwa Binzaro hearing comes a week after Mackenzie and 28 co-accused were convicted in the separate Shakahola massacre case over the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children.
In addition to the ongoing Kwa Binzaro murder trial, Mackenzie and his co-accused face manslaughter charges before the Mombasa Law Courts and radicalisation charges before the Shanzu Law Courts in connection with the Kwa Binzaro case.
The prosecution is expected to call more witnesses as it continues presenting evidence before Justice Kagendo.
