Kenyan prosecutors say self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, will face new criminal charges over the deaths of 52 additional followers, deepening one of the country’s most disturbing cult-related tragedies.
Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after investigators exhumed 429 bodies, including many children, from mass graves in the remote Shakahola Forest. Authorities say the victims died after being encouraged to starve themselves in preparation for what Mackenzie described as the end of the world.
In a statement issued Monday, Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) confirmed it had received approval to formally charge Mackenzie and several co-accused over deaths linked to the Binzaro homestead in Kilifi County, around 30 kilometres from Shakahola.
Prosecutors allege Mackenzie “masterminded” the incidents through radical teachings and coordinated structures, luring followers to isolated locations where they were instructed to fast to death.
Investigators say handwritten notes recovered from prison cells occupied by Mackenzie show he continued directing activities from custody, including alleged mobile money transactions connected to the cult.
Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of manslaughter related to the Shakahola deaths. The new charges are expected to include murder, radicalisation, and facilitation of terrorist acts, prosecutors said.
Last year, investigators discovered 34 bodies and more than 100 body parts at Binzaro—findings that prompted the latest legal action.
The case gained further momentum two weeks ago when Enos Amanya Ngala, a co-accused and former head of security at Shakahola, pleaded guilty to charges related to the deaths of 191 children found in the original mass graves.
Survivors have described a chilling hierarchy allegedly imposed by Mackenzie, in which children were ordered to starve first, followed by unmarried women, then men, with church leaders last.
Mackenzie founded the Good News International Church in 2003 but claimed to have shut it down in 2019. He discouraged formal education—calling it satanic—and urged followers to abandon schools and relocate to Shakahola Forest to “meet Jesus.”
He was arrested in both 2017 and 2018 for encouraging parents to withdraw their children from school, arguing education was “not recognised in the Bible.”
The scale of the deaths has sparked widespread criticism of Kenyan authorities, with rights groups and the public questioning whether stronger regulation and earlier intervention could have prevented the tragedy.
