Nairobi, Kenya | By Michael Wandati | In a Kenyan court session on Tuesday, self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, already facing charges of terrorism, manslaughter, and child torture, was additionally charged, along with 29 suspected accomplices, with 191 counts of murder.
The charges stem from their alleged involvement in a starvation cult that led to the deaths of nearly 200 people in a forest near the Indian Ocean. Mackenzie is accused of inciting his followers to starve to death in an attempt to “meet Jesus.”
All 30 suspects pleaded not guilty, while one individual was deemed mentally unfit for trial, with a revisit scheduled at the Malindi High Court in a month.
The Kenyan cult leader has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges leveled against him. His arrest in April of the previous year followed the shocking discovery of bodies in the Shakahola forest, causing widespread horror.
Postmortem examinations indicated that a majority of the 429 victims succumbed to hunger. However, disturbingly, some, including children, showed signs of having been strangled, beaten, or suffocated.
The case, dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre,” led the government to flag the need for tighter control of fringe denominations.
Kenya, predominantly a Christian nation, grapples with the challenge of overseeing unscrupulous churches and cults involved in criminal activities. Court records characterize Good News International Ministries, established by Mackenzie, as an “organised criminal group” that participated in criminal activities, resulting in the deaths of numerous followers.
Concerns have been raised about Mackenzie’s ability to elude law enforcement despite a history of extremism and past legal issues. A Senate commission of inquiry disclosed in October that the father of seven previously faced charges in 2017 related to extreme preaching.
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In 2017, he was acquitted of radicalization charges, which stemmed from his unconventional approach to education, providing schooling that he asserted aligned more closely with the Bible than the formal educational system.
Two years later, in 2019, he faced accusations of involvement in the deaths of two children, allegedly starved, suffocated, and buried in a shallow grave in Shakahola. Despite these charges, he was released on bail awaiting trial.
Kenya, with over 4,000 registered churches in a population of 53 million, has encountered challenges in regulating religious institutions. Past attempts to oversee these entities faced strong opposition, with critics arguing that such efforts aimed to undermine constitutional guarantees regarding the separation of church and state.
