A prisoner serving a 50-year sentence at Shimo La Tewa Maximum Security Prison has told the Mombasa High Court that he kept SIM cards in custody, after the prosecution presented evidence linking a number registered in his name to a phone associated with Paul Nthenge Mackenzie.

Kalume Kitsao Rimba, 41, denied communicating directly with the preacher when he testified before Justice Wendy Kagendo in the case arising from the deaths of 28 people whose bodies were exhumed in Kwa Binzaro, Kilifi County.

Rimba is serving his sentence after pleading guilty to drug trafficking in 2024.

Rimba said he had registered five Safaricom lines to improve his M-Shwari portfolio and qualify for mobile loans. He maintained that the registration was legitimate and denied using the SIM cards to make calls or carry out mobile money transactions while in prison.

He told the court that prison officers searched his cell on September 20, 2025 and found two Bibles containing handwritten papers with names and telephone contacts.

Officers later informed him that a SIM card registered in his name had been used to transfer money to Mackenzie, who is also being held at the prison.

A search conducted the following day led to the recovery of two SIM cards. Rimba said he had kept them since his arrest in March 2024.

He also disclosed that he sometimes lent one of the cards to a fellow inmate, Charles Kalume, who borrowed money from him to make telephone calls. Kalume would also obtain handsets from other prisoners, the court heard.

He told the court that he knew Mackenzie only through media coverage of the Shakahola deaths and denied any personal relationship with him.

The prosecution alleges that Mackenzie used telephone numbers registered in other people's names to contact his co-accused and direct them to step up doomsday preaching. Prosecutors say followers in Kwa Binzaro were encouraged to fast, allegedly leading to deaths.

The court also heard evidence from prison officers James Mnjala and Sergeant Stanislous Bongo Chikuta, who described searches carried out at Shimo La Tewa after intelligence reports indicated that inmates possessed prohibited items.

Mnjala said the searches covered prisoners, including suspects in the Shakahola murder cases. Items recovered from various cells included plastic containers, boxes, nails, ropes and a mobile phone. An Itel handset was also recovered during the operation.

Chikuta, the 50th prosecution witness, said searches on August 30 and September 19 2025 resulted in the discovery of mobile phones and SIM cards among inmates' belongings.

He further told the court that he witnessed Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers search Mackenzie's cell on September 20, 2025. They recovered a notebook, handwritten notes and a Bible.

The notebook contained telephone numbers and identification details recorded under the name of Emily Achieng, another prosecution witness who gave evidence virtually from Kisumu, Chikuta said.

He also witnessed the search of Rimba's cell and confirmed that officers collected two Bibles and handwritten papers bearing names and telephone contacts.

Mackenzie was recently convicted alongside 28 co-accused in a separate case connected to the Shakahola massacre, in which 191 people, including 190 children, died.

The ongoing Kwa Binzaro proceedings concern a separate case involving 28 deaths in Kilifi County. The hearing continues.