In Kenya, cult leader Paul Mackenzie has charged with the murder of 191 children, whose bodies were discovered buried in a forest.Along with Mackenzie, his 29 associates have also been charged in the murder case.
What happened in the court?
A 31st suspect was found to be mentally unfit to stand trial and was instructed to appear before the Malindi High Court again in one month.The cult leader has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges filed against him.
What was the case?
The incident which emerged last year sent shockwaves across the world and is being dubbed as one of the worst cult-related disasters in recent history.
In 2023, more than 400 bodies were uncovered over months of exhumations across tens of thousands of acres of the Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya. The autopsies later revealed that the majority of the 429 victims had died of hunger, but others, including children, appeared to have been strangled, beaten or suffocated.
According to a chargesheet filed last month at the Tononoka Children’s Court in the city of Mombasa, Mackenzie and 38 other suspects “wilfully and intentionally” denied food to children as young as six years old and whipped others with thorny sticks, reported AFP.
Last year, a New York Times report citing a former deputy preacher of the cult, Titus Katana, revealed that there was a methodical plan for mass suicide through starvation and children were the first to perish and were asked to “to fast in the sun so they would die faster”.
Autopsy findings revealed a harrowing reality: many of the victims perished due to starvation, while others bore signs of physical trauma, including blunt force injuries and strangulation, as outlined in CNN's report.
Katana also reportedly revealed that children were treated brutally by being shut in huts for five days without food or water. Mackenzie forbade cult members from sending their children to school and going to the hospital when they were ill, calling such institutions Satanic, reported Reuters citing some of his followers.
About the accused
Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has already been charged with terrorism, manslaughter as well as child torture and cruelty.
He was the founder and leader of what he called the Good News International Ministry. Followers have told their families and officials they believed Mackenzie when he preached that starvation was the path to salvation. He allegedly split members into smaller groups assigned biblical names. It's believed these smaller groups died together and were buried together in mass graves.
As per some of his followers, Mackenzie forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to the hospital when they were ill, branding such institutions as Satanic.
He was arrested in April last year.
Court documents have described Good News International Ministries founded by Mackenzie as "an organised criminal group (which) engaged in organised criminal activities", leading to the death of hundreds of followers.
Questions have been raised about how Mackenzie managed to evade law enforcement despite a history of extremism and previous legal cases.