A suspected Kenyan cult leader is to be charged with murder and terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 people found in mass graves, prosecutors say.
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| Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie has been in custody since April(Getty Images via BBC News) |
A Kenyan cult leader, Paul Mackenzie, has been charged with murder and exhumation of 191 children from the Shakahola forest. The Good News International Church leader ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the world ended. Over 400 bodies were uncovered over months of exhumations across tens of thousands of acres of forest, making this one of the world's worst cult-related tragedies in recent history. Prosecutors plan to charge 95 people in total on counts of murder, manslaughter, terrorism, and torture.
Mackenzie, who has been in custody since police began unearthing bodies in the forest, has said he is cooperating with the investigation. A judge granted a prosecution request to conduct mental health assessments of the 31 defendants before they are formally charged and enter pleas in two weeks. Mackenzie planned the mass starvation in three phases: first, children, then women and young men, and finally, the remaining men. He was convicted in December of producing and distributing films without a license and sentenced to 12 months in jail.
