KENYA – A doomsday cult leader in Kenya has been charged with the murders of 191 children after their bodies were found in the forest where his church was based.
Paul Mackenzie allegedly told his followers to starve themselves to death so they would meet Jesus Christ before the world ends. The children were among 429 bodies that were found over the course of months of exhumations across tens of thousands of acres of the Shakahola Forest in the coastal county of Kilifi.
The exhumations began after the first bodies were discovered in April 2023 – with the number that was eventually found making the case one of the worst cult-related tragedies in recent history.
A Worker digs the ground to exume bodies from the mass-grave site in Shakahola, outside the coastal town of Malindi, on April 25, 2023. – Kenyan investigators unearthed another 16 bodies on Tuesday in a forest where a cult was believed to be practising mass starvation, bringing the number of victims so far to 89 including children. There are fears more corpses could be found in Shakahola forest where cult leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge had allegedly been telling his followers that starvation was the only patA photograph shows littered cloths in the forest that buried bodies have been exhumed in Shakahola, outside the coastal town of Malindi, on April 23, 2023. – Twenty-one bodies have been exhumed in Kenya while investigating a cult whose followers are believed to have starved themselves to death, police sources said on April 22, 2023, warning the toll could rise. (Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)
