Kenyan cult leader charged with terrorism after 400 people killed in ‘Shakahola forest massacre’

Mackenzie, who was arrested in April last year, is said to have incited his followers to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus”.

He and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charges at a hearing in January.

In separate cases, they are also accused of murder, manslaughter, kidnapping and child torture and abuse.

The remains of more than 440 people have been excavated in a remote wilderness area inland from the coastal town of Malindi on the Indian Ocean. The incident is known as the “Shakahola forest massacre.”

Autopsies revealed that while starvation appeared to be the primary cause of death, some of the victims, including children, were strangled, beaten or suffocated.

Earlier court documents also stated that organs had been removed from some of the bodies.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, turned himself in on April 14 after police acted on a tip-off and entered the Shakahola forest, where mass graves were discovered.

In March, authorities began releasing the bodies of some of the victims to their desperate relatives after months of painstaking work to identify them using DNA.

Questions have been raised about how Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor with an extremist past, managed to evade prosecution despite his notoriety and previous court cases.

Last year, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki accused the Kenyan police of negligence in investigating the first reports of famine.

“The Shakahola massacre is the worst security breach in the history of our country,” he said at a hearing before a Senate committee, vowing that he would “tirelessly push for legal reforms to keep the renegade preachers in check.”

The state-backed Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) criticized security officials in Malindi in March for “blatant dereliction of duty and negligence.”

In light of the horrific history, President William Ruto vowed to intervene in Kenya’s indigenous religious movements.

In predominantly Christian Kenya, it has also highlighted failed efforts to regulate unscrupulous churches and sects involved in criminal activities.