Kenyan prosecutors say they will file fresh charges against cult leader Paul Mackenzie over the deaths of 52 more people discovered at a separate village in Kilifi Country, expanding one of the country's deadliest cases of religious extremism. Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor, was arrested in 2023 after authorities exhumed 429 bodies, many of them children, from mass graves in the remote Shakahola forest along Kenya's coast.
He has remained in custody since his arrest and is already facing multiple counts of manslaughter, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
In a statement posted on X on Monday, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said it had received approval to "formally charge Good News International Church leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his co-accused over the deaths of 52 people at the Binzaro Homestead in Kilifi County."
Prosecutors said Mackenzie was "reasonably suspected to have masterminded" the deaths, alleging that he used "radical teachings and coordinated structures to lure victims" to the remote settlement.
Investigators also claimed to have recovered handwritten notes from prison cells occupied by Mackenzie, which allegedly detailed transactions carried out using mobile phones. The notes, prosecutors said, suggested he continued to exert influence while in custody.
Mackenzie and several co-accused are expected to face additional charges, including radicalisation, “facilitation of terrorist acts”, and murder, alongside the original cases linked to the Shakahola mass graves.
The new charges stem from discoveries made last year, when investigators found about 34 bodies and more than 100 body parts at Binzaro, roughly 30 kilometres from Shakahola near the Indian Ocean coast.
The development follows the guilty plea, two weeks ago, of Enos Amanya Ngala, a co-accused and former head of security at Shakahola, to charges connected to the deaths of 191 children buried in the forest.
Survivors have told investigators that Mackenzie imposed a grim order of starvation, in which children were meant to die first, followed by the unmarried, women, men, and finally church leaders, as part of preparations to “meet Jesus”.
