Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 94 others have been charged with terrorist activities over the deaths of 429 of his followers, whose bodies were exhumed from the Shakahola forest near the Indian Ocean.
The charges were announced during a court appearance in the southeastern city of Mombasa. Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor and head of the Good News International Church, was arrested last April after the bodies began to be discovered.
The charges filed against him and his co-defendants include allegations of inciting his acolytes in southeastern Kenya to starve themselves and their children to death. This was, according to him, an action required to ascend to heaven before an impending world-ending event.
Autopsies conducted on the victims revealed that the majority died of hunger, while others, including children, showed signs of strangulation, beating, or suffocation. Court documents described Good News International Ministries as an “organised criminal group” engaged in activities that endangered lives and led to the deaths of 429 members and followers.
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During their court appearance, Mackenzie and the other suspects pleaded “not guilty” to charges of radicalisation and organized criminal activity. The judge, Joe Omido, scheduled a bond hearing for February 8.
Mackenzie’s pre-trial detention in Mombasa had been extended multiple times as the prosecution sought additional time to investigate the case. A court had recently warned authorities that they would release Mackenzie unless charges were filed within 14 days.
In a separate court in the coastal town of Malindi, a judge ordered Mackenzie and 30 associates to undergo mental health evaluations before facing charges of murder in connection with 191 deaths. Prosecutors in both Mombasa and Malindi indicated that they would also charge the 95 individuals with counts of manslaughter and torture.
The gruesome case, known as the “Shakahola Forest Massacre,” has prompted Kenya’s government to highlight the necessity for stricter control over fringe denominations. Mackenzie, the Kenyan cult leader, had previously been arrested in 2019 in connection with the deaths of children but was released on bond with those cases still pending in court.
The unfolding legal proceedings cast a spotlight on the complex and disturbing circumstances surrounding the Kenyan cult leader’s activities and the tragic consequences for his followers.
