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Mar
28
2024
By EDWIN WAITA
Kenyan families weep for starvation cult victims as first bodies released

Kenyan families weep for starvation cult victims as first bodies released

NEWS
BEREAVED relatives emerged weeping from a hospital mortuary in Kenya after recovering the remains of loved ones whose doomsday cult leader induced them to starve themselves, according to the authorities. The bodies of more than 400 followers of the Good News International Church have been exhumed from the Shakahola forest in southeastern Kenya since April 2023 in one of the world's worst cult-related tragedies of recent decades. Cult leader Paul Mackenzie handed himself over to police last April and is facing murder charges along with 29 others. All have pleaded not guilty. Mackenzie stands accused of telling his followers the end of the…
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Jan
20
2024
By The African Mirror
Kenya cult leader charged with terrorism-related crimes in starvation deaths

Kenya cult leader charged with terrorism-related crimes in starvation deaths

NEWS
KENYAN cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 94 others were charged with terrorism-related crimes related to the deaths of 429 of his followers whose bodies have been exhumed from the Shakahola forest. The charges, announced during an appearance before a court in the southeastern city of Mombasa, are the first to be brought against Mackenzie, who was arrested last April after the bodies started to be discovered. Mackenzie and his co-defendants denied the charges during their appearance before the judge, Joe Omido. They are due back in court on February 8 for a bond hearing. Authorities say Mackenzie, the head of…
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Dec
03
2023
By The African Mirror
Kenya doomsday cult leader jailed for unlicensed film production

Kenya doomsday cult leader jailed for unlicensed film production

NEWS
THE leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult, in which authorities believe more than 400 members may have died, was jailed for 12 months for producing and distributing films without a licence. Authorities accuse Paul Mackenzie, head of the Good News International Church, of ordering his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the end of the world. Police have exhumed hundreds of bodies from mass graves in Shakahola forest in the country's southeast. Mackenzie handed himself into police in April and has repeatedly been denied bail while investigations continue into the…
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May
11
2023
By The African Mirror
Kenya court denies bail for suspected death cult leader

Kenya court denies bail for suspected death cult leader

NEWS
A Kenyan court denied bail for cult leader Paul Mackenzie, who authorities say ordered followers to starve their children and themselves to death, and extended his detention by 30 days. The death toll climbed to 145 from 133 announced on Tuesday, and hundreds of people are still missing. Authorities are searching for remains in shallow graves scattered throughout a forest where Mackenzie's followers were living. Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, has not yet been required to enter a plea after handing himself over to police last month. A lawyer representing Mackenzie, George Kariuki, has said the self-styled pastor is…
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May
05
2023
By The African Mirror
Inside a Kenyan starvation cult and its tragic end in a forest of death

Inside a Kenyan starvation cult and its tragic end in a forest of death

NEWS
DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYAN cult leader Paul Mackenzie lived with hundreds of followers in makeshift homes of polythene sheeting and thatch in a remote forest camp that he divided into areas with biblical names like Jerusalem and Judea, relatives of his adherents say. He told them the world as they knew it was going to end on April 15 and Satan would rule for 1,000 years, according to the relatives and a senior police investigator. He ordered them to starve themselves and their children to death so they could meet Jesus in heaven ahead of that date, they said. "I heard…
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May
05
2023
By The African Mirror
Kenya court frees pastor accused of links to cult leader

Kenya court frees pastor accused of links to cult leader

NEWS
A Kenyan court released on bond a televangelist detained last week as part of an investigation into the deaths of dozens of people whom police say starved themselves to death on the instructions of a cult leader. Kenya's interior minister accused Pastor Ezekiel Odero after his arrest last Thursday of involvement in the "mass killing of his followers", without elaborating. A document presented in court last week said police had established that several deaths were recorded at Odero's church and that those bodies may have been moved to a forest about 66 km (40 miles) away, where more than 100 bodies have…
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May
05
2023
By The African Mirror
Inside Kenya’s death-by-starvation cult

Inside Kenya’s death-by-starvation cult

NEWS
DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYAN cult leader Paul Mackenzie lived with hundreds of followers in makeshift homes of polythene sheeting and thatch in a remote forest camp that he divided into areas with biblical names like Jerusalem and Judea, relatives of his adherents say. He told them the world as they knew it was going to end on April 15 and Satan would rule for 1,000 years, according to the relatives and a senior police investigator. He ordered them to starve themselves and their children to death so they could meet Jesus in heaven ahead of that date, they said. "I heard…
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Apr
28
2023
By The African Mirror
Kenyan father searches for wife and six children among dead cult members

Kenyan father searches for wife and six children among dead cult members

NEWS
STEPHEN Mwiti was too distraught to go identify the bodies of his wife and six children among the corpses of dozens of cult members recovered from Shakahola forest and brought to a mortuary in Kenya's coastal town of Malindi. "My children are gone. The children who have been rescued, I went and had a look and I did not see my children," Mwiti said as he waved a photo of his wife and four of the children. He has been carrying the fading, dog-eared photo in a plastic bag for the last six months or so as he searched for…
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Apr
26
2023
By The African Mirror
Kenya hunger cult deaths reach 89, minister prays survivors will ‘tell the story’

Kenya hunger cult deaths reach 89, minister prays survivors will ‘tell the story’

NEWS
GEORGE OBULUTSA THE death toll among followers of a Kenyan cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves has risen to 89, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said, calling for the group's leader to spend the rest of his life in prison. The toll has steadily risen in recent days as authorities have carried out exhumations of mass graves found in an 800-acre area of the Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya where the self-proclaimed Good News International Church was based. Most of the dead were recovered from shallow graves, while a small number were found alive and…
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