At least 400 bodies buried, brainwashing and more: What was Kenya's ‘doomsday' starvation cult?

Indian Express

6 days ago

A Kenyan court has ordered the exhumation of bodies suspected to belong to people who were starved and suffocated in a religious cult ritual around two years ago, leaving at least 400 people dead.
According to a Reuters report, bodies are believed to be buried in shallow graves on the outskirts of the coastal city of Malindi in Kenya, where the cult's headquarters was previously located.
Paul Mackenzie, a pastor from Kenya, was at the centre of one of the all-time worst cult-related incidents.
In April 2023, a tip-off to the police helped arrest Mackenzie and resulted in his Church Good News International organisation's 800-acre estate in Shakahola forest being searched. Authorities initially recovered around 80 bodies from shallow graves. Most showed signs of death by starvation, while a few had signs of asphyxiation or loss of oxygen. Some surviving members of the church were also found in weak condition.
Mackenzie was a taxi driver-turned-Evangelical preacher who had been a religious leader for two decades. The New York Times reported in 2023 that, unlike Roman Catholic or Anglican churches, which are governed by hierarchies and rules, many evangelical churches in the East African country are 'run by independent preachers who have no oversight'.
A blogspot website of the pastor stated that Good News International was established 'to nurture the faithful holistically in all matters of Christian spirituality as we prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ through teaching and evangelism.' It mentioned their TV show titled 'End Time Messages', which would broadcast 'God's word based teachings, preaching and prophecy on end times… to bring the Gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ which is free of deceit and man's intellect.' Subsequently, Mackenzie established a sprawling campus in the Shakahola forests near Malindi.
With his show and YouTube videos, Mackenzie's popularity rose. In the most extreme sign of their total belief in his views, he told his followers that the world was going to end soon and Satan would rule for the next 1,000 years. He ordered them to starve themselves and their children to death so they could meet Jesus in heaven instead, the victims' relatives said.
A deadly end
Mackenzie is said to have had a three-stage plan, first involving the deaths of children, then women and then himself, along with men. Mackenzie denied that he told anyone not to eat, investigators said in 2023.
Reuters also found that four relatives of those who died said he would cut off his followers from their families and society through his extreme teachings. 'Education is evil…Children are being taught lesbianism and gayism in school curriculums,' he said in one video from March.
Earlier in 2017, the compound was searched by authorities, and they found 43 children living there without attending school. In 2019, too, the authorities ordered Mackenzie's church to shut down, police said, prompting his relocation to the Shakahola forest.
In March 2023, a local man told police that his brother and his wife had starved their children to death in the forest on Mackenzie's orders. Officers searched and found the bodies, after which Mackenzie was arrested, but a magistrate freed him on bail. This only sped up his plans – he returned to the forest and told his followers that the world would end on April 15 instead of August.
On April 13 that year, police acted on a tip-off and returned to the forest, eventually finding the bodies.
What comes next
Mackenzie, who faces charges of murder and terrorism, denies the accusations against him.
Kenyan President William Ruto in 2023 said that the government would form a judicial commission of inquiry to establish why Mackenzie's alleged activities were not detected earlier. He was criticised not just for his handling of the incident, but also for allegedly being reluctant to act quickly because of his own strong religious views and those of his wife, Rachel, who is also an evangelical preacher.