A Safaricom SIM card registered to a prisoner serving a 50-year sentence at Shimo La Tewa Maximum Security Prison was allegedly linked to a mobile phone used by controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie, the Mombasa High Court has heard.
The revelation emerged during the trial of Mackenzie and seven co-accused persons over the Kwa Binzaro massacre in Kilifi County, where the remains of 28 people were exhumed from shallow graves.
According to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the SIM card belonged to Kalume Kitsao Rimba, 41, who admitted retaining SIM cards in prison but denied using them to make calls or conduct mobile money transactions.
Testifying before Lady Justice Wendy Kagendo on Tuesday, Rimba said he had registered five Safaricom numbers in his name to build his M-Shwari portfolio and access mobile loans.
He told the court that prison officers searched his cell on September 20, 2025 and recovered two Bibles containing handwritten papers bearing names and telephone contacts.
Rimba said officers later informed him that one of his SIM cards had been used to transfer money to Mackenzie, who is also remanded at the facility.
A further search the following day led to the recovery of two SIM cards, which Rimba said he had retained since his arrest in March 2024.
He denied any direct association with Mackenzie, saying he only knew the preacher through media reports about the Shakahola deaths.
However, Rimba disclosed that he had occasionally lent one of his SIM cards to a fellow inmate, Charles Kalume, when the latter borrowed money from him to make telephone calls. He added that Kalume also borrowed mobile phone handsets from other prisoners.
The prosecution alleges that Mackenzie used mobile numbers registered in other people's names to communicate with his co-accused, allegedly instructing them to intensify doomsday preaching and encourage followers in Kwa Binzaro to fast, resulting in deaths.
Mackenzie was recently convicted alongside 28 co-accused persons in connection with the Shakahola massacre, in which 191 people, including 190 children, died.
The court also heard testimony from prison officers James Mnjala and Sergeant Stanislous Bongo Chikuta about searches at the facility that recovered mobile phones, SIM cards, ropes and handwritten notes.
Chikuta told the court that Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers searched Mackenzie's cell on September 20, 2025, recovering a notebook, handwritten notes and a Bible.
The notebook contained telephone numbers and identification details recorded under the name of prosecution witness Emily Achieng, who testified virtually from Kisumu.
The hearing continues.