52 more deaths: Kenya starvation cult preacher to be charged

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A self-proclaimed preacher in Kenya linked to an infamous starvation cult that killed more than 400 people will be charged over a further 52 deaths at another village, prosecutors said Monday.

In a case that made global headlines when it came to light in 2023, hundreds of people died in what became known as the “Shakahola Forest Massacre”, one of the world’s worst cult-related tragedies, discovered just inland from the Kenyan beach resort of Malindi.

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of manslaughter at his trial in Mombasa and has remained in custody. But last year, Kenya was shocked by the discovery of yet more bodies in the remote village of Binzaro, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Shakahola along the Indian Ocean coast.

It appeared to show that the same cult had continued to operate even after the first massacre site was discovered and Mackenzie arrested.

Efforts to regulate religion in the majority-Christian country have been fiercely opposed in the past as undermining constitutional guarantees of the division between church and state.

In a statement on X, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said a Malindi court had given its go-ahead to “formally charge Good News International Church leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his co-accused over the deaths of 52 people at the Binzaro homestead in Kilifi County”.

Mackenzie and others will be charged with a raft of offences, including radicalisation, “facilitation of terrorist acts”, and murder over the more recent killings, adding to his charges related to Shakahola.

‘Lure victims’ –

The prosecution told the court Mackenzie was “reasonably suspected to have masterminded” the incidents, saying he used “radical teachings… to lure victims” to the remote village.