A self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher, Paul Mackenzie, along with seven others linked to a notorious doomsday cult, have been formally charged over the deaths of dozens of people whose bodies were discovered in shallow graves in southeast Kenya last year.
Kenya’s Public Prosecutions Office announced on X on Wednesday that Mackenzie and the defendants face charges of “organized criminal activity, two counts of radicalization, and two counts of facilitating commission of a terrorist act” related to the deaths of at least 52 people in the Kwa Binzaro area of Chakama, Kilifi County.
The defendants pleaded not guilty. The next hearing is scheduled for March 4.
“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,” prosecutors said.
Mackenzie and his Good News International Church are accused of orchestrating a cult where followers were instructed to starve themselves and their children to death to reach heaven before the world ended. Mackenzie has denied the allegations.
By 2025, two years into investigations, over 400 bodies had been recovered from Shakahola Forest in Kilifi County, one of the largest cult-related disasters in recent history. Autopsies revealed most victims died of hunger, though some, including children, were strangled, beaten, or suffocated.
While Mackenzie pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of manslaughter at a first trial in Mombasa, authorities discovered more bodies last year in the remote village of Kwa Binzaro, roughly 30km from Shakahola along the Indian Ocean coast. Prosecutors claim Mackenzie continued to direct cult activities at Kwa Binzaro even after his detention in 2023, using radical teachings to draw followers to the site.
The case has prompted the Kenyan government to call for tighter oversight of fringe religious denominations. Separate reports by the Kenyan Senate and a state-funded human rights body suggest that authorities could have prevented the deaths.
