A Kenyan court has found the starvation cult leader Paul Mackenzie and about 30 others guilty of murder over the deaths of 190 children and one adult in one of the world’s worst cult-related disasters in recent history.
asserted
leader → find → history
Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after police received a tipoff, and weeks later authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola forest near the coast in south-eastern Kenya.
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authorities → arrest → Kenya
Prosecutors say Mackenzie and his Good News International Church organised a Christian doomsday sect in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven before the world ended.
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world → say → heaven
Mackenzie denied murder charges, saying he did not force the victims to starve but the court rejected that argument.
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court → deny → argument
In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered from the Shakahola forest.
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bodies → recover → forest
Many were severely decomposed, and only 26 of them were able to be identified.
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26 → decompose → them
Monday’s judgment covered 191 deaths while investigations into the other deaths are continuing.
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investigations → cover → deaths
Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache said in a hearing lasting more than eight hours that in some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.
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parents → say → food
Mackenzie was in court, wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, sitting alongside his wife, one of the co-accused.
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Mackenzie → wear → accused
He was silent, staring into space before the ruling was handed down.
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ruling → star → space
Relatives of some of those who died in the forest gathered to hear the judgment at Mombasa high court.
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who → die → court
Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight family members including two grandchildren to the cult.
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Wanje → lose → cult
Speaking before the verdict, he said: “It has been really a heavy thing [for] us as a family, and it has really taken us very far in terms of psychological problems …
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it → speak → problems
I was hoping for this particular day.”
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I → hop → day
The Shakahola tragedy has gripped Kenya since the discovery of mass graves in the coastal forest more than three years ago.
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tragedy → grip → forest
It raised questions over how Mackenzie was able to continue to operate despite having been on the radar of the authorities since 2017 when his premises were searched by police.
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premises → raise → police
In 2019, authorities shut down Mackenzie’s church and he relocated to the Shakahola forest, police said.
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police → shut → forest
The case has also led to calls for tougher oversight of churches and other religious organisations in a country where religious faith plays a prominent role in public life.
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faith → lead → life
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths.
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agencies → say → deaths
He said he took responsibility as president.
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he → say → president
People with direct knowledge of the cult’s activities said Mackenzie planned the mass starvation in three phases: first children, then women and young men, and finally the remaining men.
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Mackenzie → say → phases
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to hospital when they were ill, describing such institutions as satanic, some of his followers told Reuters for a 2023 article.
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some → forbid → article
Cult members lived in makeshift homes of polythene sheeting and thatch that Mackenzie divided into areas with biblical names such as Jerusalem and Judea.
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Mackenzie → live → Jerusalem
The plight of his followers began to emerge in mid-March 2023, when a local man told police that his brother and wife had starved their children to death in the forest on Mackenzie’s orders.
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brother → begin → orders
Mackenzie was arrested but released on bail, after which relatives say he brought forward the date on which he told his followers the world would end.
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world → arrest → followers
Police arrested him again in April 2023 and started combing through the forest more systematically and began exhuming mass graves.
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Police → arrest → graves
Mackenzie faces other charges over the forest deaths including terrorism-related ones, which he has denied.
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he → face → which
Prosecutors say while he was in detention he also directed the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, about 18 miles (30km) from Shakahola.
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he → say → Shakahola
Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty in that case.
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Mackenzie → plead → case
The Aporia
