NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 6 – Shakahola cult leader Paul Mackenzie has been charged with the murder of 191 children in one of Kenya’s worst massacres.
Mackenzie was arraigned alongside 29 of his followers–all accused of murdering innocent children when hundreds of people were forced to starve to death in the vast forest near the Indian Ocean.
They all denied the charges read to them before Malindi High Court judge Lady Justice Thande Mugure.
One of the accused persons was not in court after a mental assessment determined he was unfit to answer to murder charges but his name is on the charge sheet.
Mackenzie and his followers were recently charged with terrorism, manslaughter among other charges.
These charges stem from a gruesome tragedy in which hundreds of individuals were forced to starve to death in a vast forest near the Indian Ocean.
The state had initially requested a two-week period for a mental assessment of the accused persons before proceeding with murder charges.
The grim events leading to these charges unfolded as Mackenzie, the head of the Good News International Church, reportedly ordered his followers to undertake extreme acts, believing it would allow them to ascend to heaven before an impending apocalypse.
Over several months, authorities conducted extensive exhumations across vast forested areas, revealing the remains of more than 400 individuals. This discovery marks one of the most significant cult-related tragedies in recent history.
During the court hearing, Mackenzie and his co-defendants appeared largely expressionless. Delays in filing charges were attributed to the challenging process of locating and exhuming numerous human remains, as well as conducting autopsies. Some cult members, who had been subjected to starvation, were rescued in emaciated conditions from the forest.
Individuals familiar with the cult’s activities revealed that Mackenzie had planned the mass starvation in three phases: first targeting children, followed by women and young men, and concluding with the remaining men. Additionally, Mackenzie prohibited cult members from sending their children to school and seeking medical treatment when ill, labelling such institutions as satanic.
Mackenzie had previously been convicted in December on charges of producing and distributing films without a license, resulting in a 12-month jail sentence.
In 2019, he had been arrested in connection with the deaths of children but was released on bond, with those cases still pending in court.
