Teachers from Busia and Siaya counties have testified that several pupils failed to return to school after the April 2025 holiday, with evidence presented in court linking their disappearance to a fasting camp in Kwa Binzaro, Kilifi County, where 28 bodies have been exhumed.
The testimony was heard at the Mombasa High Court during the ongoing murder trial involving controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and seven co-accused persons over the alleged killings at Kwa Binzaro, located about four kilometres from Shakahola. Appearing before Lady Justice Wendy Kagendo, the teachers told the court that the affected learners had attended classes during the first term of 2025 but did not report back for the second term.
The accused persons are alleged to have jointly murdered adults whose identities were known and unknown. They also face charges relating to alleged crimes against humanity in connection with the Kwa Binzaro deaths.
Dishon Shihundu, the principal of St. Peter’s Budokomi Secondary School in Busia County, was the first witness to testify about the disappearance of a student linked to the case. Shihundu, who has led the school for three years, said the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) contacted the institution on December 16, 2025, seeking confirmation of the enrolment of Jael Atieno Ochieng, who had reportedly disappeared alongside her siblings.
Responding to questions from Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Frankline Sirima, Shihundu confirmed that Jael was a Form Two student who went missing from school on March 19, 2025. He told the court that he supplied investigators with certified copies of her admission records, class attendance registers, academic report and certificate of merit.
According to the principal, Jael was a high-performing student who had earned an opportunity to represent the school at a regional Science and Engineering Fair after excelling at the county level. Shihundu said he repeatedly attempted to contact her parents without success. He later sent students from her neighbourhood to establish her whereabouts and was informed that she had left home with her parents two days earlier.
In August 2025, the principal said he learnt from Jael’s brother that the family had travelled to Kwa Binzaro for fasting and that the student was feared dead. The court also heard that DNA analysis identified one of the bodies recovered from the site as Jael’s father. The remains were subsequently released to the family for burial.
The second witness, Salma Olayo Anyitu, a senior teacher and games teacher at Goro Primary School in Siaya County, testified about three pupils who also failed to return to class.
Anyitu said the DCI Homicide Unit wrote to the school’s head teacher on December 16, 2025, seeking records confirming whether Florence Akinyi, Christine Achieng and Mary Atieno had been enrolled at the institution. She confirmed that the three learners joined the school on January 8, 2024, after transferring from other schools in Siaya and Kisumu counties.
The teacher told the court that she interacted regularly with the pupils, particularly Mary, a Grade Six learner who was talented in athletics and excelled in ball games. She said the three pupils did not return when the second term began. Their mother, she added, had regularly visited the school during the first term to pay levies and attend meetings.
Evidence presented in court indicated that the three girls 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. DNA tests have since identified three bodies recovered from the site as those of Mary Atieno, Florence Akinyi and Shadrack Ochieng.
The third witness, Jackline Awiti Akinyi, who manages Kamalumbe Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centre in Siaya County, testified about the school records of two children connected to the case.
Akinyi told the court that, following a request from the DCI, she provided documents confirming that Shadrack Ochieng and Esther Akinyi had been enrolled at the centre in PP1 and PP2, respectively. She said she made inquiries about the children and was informed by their grandmother that they had left their rural home on March 30, 2025, with their four other siblings for Kwa Binzaro.
The latest proceedings come a week after Mackenzie and 28 co-accused were convicted in the Shakahola massacre case over the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children.
Mackenzie and the other accused persons are also facing manslaughter charges at the Mombasa Law Courts and radicalisation charges at the Shanzu Law Courts in connection with the Kwa Binzaro case.
The prosecution is expected to call additional witnesses as the trial continues, with the state presenting evidence before Justice Kagendo.
