Fresh details have emerged in the Kwa Binzaro murder trial, with the Mombasa High Court learning that a Safaricom SIM card registered to an inmate serving a half-century behind bars at Shimo La Tewa Maximum Security Prison found its way into a mobile phone connected to controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie.

The witness at the centre of the revelation is Kalume Kitsao Rimba, 41, who is currently serving a 50-year sentence for drug trafficking after pleading guilty in 2024.

Testifying before Lady Justice Wendy Kagendo, Rimba acknowledged keeping SIM cards while in prison but drew a firm line at having used them or having any direct dealings with Mackenzie.

He said the only thing he knew about the preacher was what he had read and watched in media coverage of the Shakahola deaths.

His explanation for having multiple registered lines was straightforward, he had signed up five Safaricom numbers to grow his M-Shwari profile and access mobile loans, and he maintained the registrations were above board.

What he did not expect was to find himself pulled into a murder trial.

On September 20, 2025, prison officers searched his cell and found two Bibles stuffed with handwritten papers carrying names and phone contacts.

They then informed him that one of his SIM cards had been used to send money to Mackenzie, who was also being held at Shimo La Tewa.

A follow-up search the next day turned up two SIM cards that Rimba said he had held onto since his arrest in March 2024.

He denied using the cards for calls or mobile money transactions himself, but admitted lending one of them to a fellow inmate, Charles Kalume, on occasions when Kalume needed to make calls after borrowing money from him.

The prosecution’s case is that Mackenzie deliberately used mobile lines registered in other people’s names to stay in contact with his co-accused while in custody, allegedly directing them to push doomsday preaching and encourage followers in Kwa Binzaro to fast, a directive the prosecution says led directly to deaths.

Two prison officers also took the stand. James Mnjala told the court that surprise searches were triggered by intelligence suggesting prohibited items, including phones and SIM cards, were being hidden in cells by inmates, among them those facing Shakahola-related charges.

The searches turned up plastic containers, boxes, nails, a mobile phone, ropes, and an Itel handset from various cells.

Sergeant Stanislaus Bongo Chikuta, the 50th prosecution witness, said searches carried out on August 30 and September 19, 2025, produced more phones and SIM cards.

He also told the court that on September 20, 2025, he was present when DCI officers went through Mackenzie’s cell and came out with a notebook, handwritten notes, and a Bible.

Inside the notebook were phone numbers and personal details recorded under the name of a prosecution witness who later testified virtually from Kisumu.

Mackenzie was recently convicted alongside 28 others over the Shakahola massacre, which claimed 191 lives, 190 of them children. The Kwa Binzaro trial continues.