- Cult leader charged, 191 children
- Defendants plead not guilty
- Court returns March 7
Mackenzie, according to the prosecution, instructed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death to reach paradise before the world’s end.
A Kenyan apocalyptic cult leader and 29 associates have been charged with murdering 191 children.
In Malindi, a coastal town, Paul Mackenzie and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges in court.
One defendant was found mentally unfit to stand trial.
The prosecution claims Mackenzie directed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death to achieve paradise before the apocalypse.
The children were among more than 429 bodies found in the Shakahola Forest, in the coastal county of Kilifi, after months of exhumations across thousands of acres.
Followers of Mackenzie’s Good News International Church lived in several remote settlements covering 800 acres surrounded by the forest.
Mackenzie, arrested in April last year, has previously been charged with homicide, torture, and terrorism-related offences.
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He was also convicted in December of unauthorised film production and distribution, receiving a 12-month prison sentence.
Mackenzie, a former minicab driver, allegedly told cult members to keep their sick children out of school and away from hospitals, deeming such institutions Satanic in the view of some followers.
Also his lawyer stated he is cooperating with the investigation into the deaths.
The judge announced that the thirty defendants are due back in court on March 7 for a bond hearing.
