Kenyan cult leader who incited followers to starve to death 'to meet Jesus' will face terrorism charges

Kenyan cult leader and self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, who appeared in court on Tuesday, will be tried under terrorism charges for causing the starvation and death of more than 100 people in what has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”.

The prosecutors said that the accused will also face charges of murder, kidnapping, and cruelty towards children among other crimes, AFP news agency reported.

During the brief hearing, the court in Malindi decided to move the case to the high court in Kenya's second-largest city of Mombasa after the request of the prosecutor.

"There is a court (in Mombasa) that is gazetted to handle cases under the prevention of terrorism act," prosecutor Vivian Kambaga told a magistrate.

Mackenzie, who set up the Good News International Church in 2003, is accused of inciting followers to starve to death "to meet Jesus".

The deeply religious East African country, which has a Christian majority population, was stunned last month after the mass graves were discovered in a forest near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi.

After finding 30 mass graves, the police, acting on a tip-off nabbed the former taxi driver on April 14. A total of 109 people have so far been confirmed dead, most of them children.The first autopsies from Shakahola were carried out on Monday on nine children and one woman.

Death toll in the Kenyan starvation cult rises to 58

The authorities confirmed that their death was caused by starvation, though some victims were asphyxiated.

Apart from Mackenzie, officials are also trying to prosecute Ezekiel Odero, a wealthy and high-profile televangelist, who was arrested in Malindi on Thursday in connection with the same case.

Odero is suspected of murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalisation, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering.

The prosecution is seeking to detain him for a further 30 days, citing credible information linking the corpses exhumed at Shakahola to the deaths of several "innocent and vulnerable followers" from Odero's New Life Prayer Centre and Church, AFP reported.

Officials claimed that Odero and Mackenzie share a 'history of business investments', including a television station used to spread radicalised messages among the followers.

In the wake of the horrific incidents, Kenyan President William Ruto has vowed to intervene in religious movements in the country home to about 4,000 churches.

(With inputs from agencies)

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