Shakahola Pastor Paul Mackenzie to Face Charges for Orchestrating More Deaths From Prison

Shakahola cult leader Pastor Paul Mackenzie is set to face fresh charges over the deaths of an additional 52 people, prosecutors have announced, deepening one of Kenya’s most disturbing criminal cases in recent history.

Mackenzie, the founder of Good News International Church, already stands accused of encouraging his followers to starve themselves to death. Authorities arrested him in 2023 after investigators exhumed 429 bodies, including children, from mass graves in the remote Shakahola Forest in Kilifi County. He has remained in custody since his arrest.

According to prosecutors, Mackenzie allegedly continued orchestrating deaths even while behind bars. Investigators believe he lured the latest victims by writing notes from his prison cell, directing followers to travel to another village where they later died.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said it had received approval to formally charge Mackenzie and his co-accused over the deaths of 52 people at the Binzaro homestead, also located in Kilifi County.

In a statement, prosecutors said Mackenzie was “reasonably suspected to have masterminded” the deaths and used “radical teachings and coordinated structures to lure victims” to the remote settlement.

“Investigators recovered handwritten notes from [prison] cells occupied by Mackenzie, allegedly detailing transactions conducted through mobile phones,” the ODPP said.

Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of manslaughter. With the new charges, he and other suspects now face a broader range of offences, including radicalisation, facilitation of terrorist acts, and murder over the more recent killings, in addition to the original charges linked to the Shakahola mass graves.

Investigators uncovered the Binzaro deaths last year after recovering about 34 bodies and more than 100 body parts from the area, located roughly 30 kilometres from Shakahola along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline. The grim discovery formed the basis of the latest prosecution decision.

The new charges come just two weeks after a key development in the case, when one of Mackenzie’s co-accused and the former head of security at Shakahola, Enos Amanya Ngala, pleaded guilty to charges connected to the deaths of 191 children found in the original mass graves.

The post Shakahola Pastor Paul Mackenzie to Face Charges for Orchestrating More Deaths From Prison appeared first on Nairobi Wire.