Paul Mackenzie's son Dan is watching his siblings go hungry, and he says it has been happening for weeks. The children, who remain under their father's influence, are reportedly still being starved in the period leading up to Mackenzie's trial. Dan, who initially defended his father, has now broken his silence in a way that few could have anticipated: he says he felt compelled to report his own grandmother.
The shift in Dan's position is striking. A son who once stood by his father is now one of the clearest voices raising alarm from inside the family. That kind of turn rarely happens without something serious pushing a person to that edge.
The trial of Paul Mackenzie, the Kenyan cult leader at the center of one of the country's most disturbing mass starvation cases, has not yet begun. But the situation inside the family, according to Dan, is not waiting for the courts to catch up.
Originally published by BBC Africa.