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By Lawrence Agbo
A Kenyan self-proclaimed preacher linked to an infamous starvation cult that killed over 400 people has been charged with 52 further deaths, prosecutors said.
The “Shakahola Forest Massacre,” one of the biggest cult-related disasters in history, was a case that garnered international attention in 2023 when hundreds of victims were found just inland from the Kenyan coastal resort of Malindi.
Paul Mackenzie, a self-described pastor, has been detained after entering a not guilty plea to many manslaughter charges during his trial in Mombasa.
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However, other bodies were found last year in the isolated community of Binzaro, which is located on the Indian Ocean coast about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Shakahola. This suggests that the same cult may have persisted even after Mackenzie was arrested.
According to a statement shared on X, the public prosecutions office said that it had charged Mackenzie and others with “organised criminal activity, two counts of radicalisation (and) two counts of facilitating commission of a terrorist act” in relation to the “deaths of at least 52 people at Kwa Binzaro area in Chakama, Kilifi County.”
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 4, and the defendants have once more entered a not guilty plea.
“They are alleged to have promoted an extreme belief system by preaching against the authority of the government, adopted an extreme belief system against authority, and facilitated the commission of a terrorist act,” the prosecutor’s office said.
