The leader of a ‘doomsday cult’ who is accused of forcing hundreds of children into fatal starvation so they could ‘meet Jesus’ has been charged with 191 murders.
Paul Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor, and 29 of his followers are set to receive the final verdict in the case today (19 October). Both Mackenzie and his followers have pleaded not guilty and insist nobody was forced to die. He says he closed his church in 2019.
In 2023, a mass grave was found in Kenya containing over 400 bodies. Many of the bodies were found to have died from starvation, as well as beatings, strangulation and suffocation.
Officials soon turned their attention to Good News International Ministries, which was a network of people located in the Shakahola Forest, part of Chakama Ranch in Kilifi County.
Paul Mackenzie is in court over his 191 murder charges (Photo by SIMON MAINA / AFP via Getty Images)
In the end, Mackenzie was apprehended along with a number of surviving followers and charged with murder, terrorism-related offences, and several other crimes.
Now, he has been charged in relation to 191 murders – all but one of which relate to young children, according to court documents.
“Every grave we found had at least three bodies,” James, a gravedigger, told the BBC. “Some of the remains were of children as young as a few weeks old.
“We once found 12 bodies of children in a line inside a grave. It was massive, the bodies were arranged like clothes. One on top of another.”
Some of the bodies were described as having their ‘hands and legs tied and bodies wrapped in bedsheets.’
Mackenzie has been accused by authorities of creating a death order which involved children starving themselves first, then women, men, and finally the church leaders in a forest so they could meet Christ faster.
His church, which was set up in 2003, focused on the End Day sermons, which were broadcast on Times TV from his base in Malindi.
The grave site found around 450 bodies (Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)
In July, Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said it believed the church’s victims were ‘starved and suffocated as a result of adopting and promoting extreme religious ideologies’, which included shunning modern medicine.
Mackenzie also faces charges of radicalisation and denying education to children.
Mackenzie and the others accused of murder are at Mombasa High Court today (19 October) to face the judgement delivered by Justice Diana Kavedza.
People who claim to have personally been impacted by Mackenzie’s alleged teachings have since spoken out about the potential ruling today.
Francis Wanje, 62, alleges he lost eight family members, including his daughter and two grandchildren in the forest.
“This day, to me, is a very, very important day,” he told AFP, per CP24. “We are expecting a ruling that will be a lesson to the whole public, so that such kinds of things will not happen again,” he said.
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