Doomsday cult preacher Paul Mackenzie contacted his followers while in jail and convinced them to starve themselves to death in a fasting ritual, preliminary police investigations indicate.
More than 450 graves were discovered in the Shakahola Forest, Malindi, in 2023, for members of Mackenzie’s church.
Police are currently investigating the deaths of a further 34 people. A total of 102 different body parts were also found during the exhumations, with the bodies buried in graves less than a foot deep.
Police were called to the site of the graves in the Kwa Binzaro forest, less than 19 miles from the Shakahola Forest, in July this year.
Autopsies have been conducted on all the bodies, six of them children. Two adults were found to have died from blows to the head, but the cause of the other deaths could not be determined due to severe decomposition.
In an affidavit before court, Kenyan investigators have alleged how Mackenzie, who previously led the outlawed Good News International Ministries, employed radical and extremist teachings to maintain control over his former followers.
This manipulation is said to have been aimed at preventing those who had not been charged in connection with the 2023 Shakahola deaths from testifying against him in related criminal cases.
According to the affidavit, Mackenzie delivered “radical extremism, end-time and/or cultic teachings to them through calls… culminating in their being escorted by his associates to a homestead in Binzaro village and directed to fast inside rooms that were locked and guarded from the outside”.
Police filed this affidavit to secure a search warrant for Mackenzie’s cell at Shimo La Tewa high security prison, in an effort to find the mobile phone he allegedly used to continue preaching to his followers.
Testimonies previously released by police say Mackenzie told his followers “the fast would count only if they gathered together, and offered them his farm as a fasting venue”.
“They were not to mingle with anyone from the ‘outside’ world if they wanted to go to heaven and were to destroy all documents given by the government, including national IDs and birth certificates,” police said.
Officials also said Mackenzie hired criminals armed with weapons to kill followers who changed their minds about fasting and wanted to leave, along with those who took too long to die.
He has been in custody since 2023 and faces a host of charges, including terrorism, child cruelty and murder. He has previously pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
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Four people, believed to have been in contact with Mackenzie, are currently in custody over the Binzaro village deaths.
Sharleen Temba Anido, Kahindi Kazungu Garama, Thomas Mukonwe, and James Kazungu are said to have organised a “holy safari to see Jesus”.
They escaped from Shakahola forest but are now accused of reviving Mackenzie’s radical teachings.
