Self-styled pastor Paul Ntenge McKenzie (left), who founded Good News International Church in 2003 and is accused of encouraging cult members to starve to death “to meet Jesus”, appeared in the dock. I spoke with relatives at the time. May 5, 2023, Shands Law Court, Mombasa. (Photo by SIMON MAINA/AFP, Getty Images)
A Kenyan court this week gave authorities 14 days to prosecute a suspected cult leader held over the deaths of hundreds of his followers or he must be released. I was given a reprieve.
Paul Ntenge McKenzie has already been jailed for nine months on several occasions as investigations continue into what happened in Shakahora Forest, near Malindi on the coast, where human remains were discovered in April last year. have experienced.
The former taxi driver was detained on April 14 on suspicion of inciting hundreds of members of the evangelical Good News International Church to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus,” according to a Senate report. He has been indicted.
Mr McKenzie and his co-defendants are believed to have prevented worshipers from breaking their fast or attempting to flee the forest.
This apparent massacre has been met with incomprehension in Kenya, a Christian-majority country with around 4,000 officially registered “churches,” according to government data.
But the country of 53 million people has struggled to rein in unscrupulous churches and cults that engage in crime.
Judge Yusuf Abdallah Sikanda said: “This is the longest pre-trial detention in the history of this country since the constitution was revised in 2010.”
He said Mr McKenzie and his 29 co-accused could be released within two weeks if no charges continue.
Prosecutors had asked in September for McKenzie's detention to be extended for another 180 days, but Shikanda pointed out that 117 days had passed since then.
“In my opinion, that is enough time for the pending investigation to be completed,” he said.
Prosecutors had indicated in May that they intended to charge “terrorism'' against McKenzie, who was taken into custody the day after the first body was found in the woods. So far, 429 bodies have been discovered.
Autopsies showed that most of the victims died of starvation, but others, including children, appeared to have been strangled, beaten or suffocated.
The Senate Investigative Committee reported in October that although the self-proclaimed pastor was indicted in 2017 for extremist preaching, “the criminal justice system has failed to stop Paul McKenzie's heinous activities in Shakahora.” .
McKenzie was acquitted of radicalization charges in 2017 for illegally providing schooling. He rejected the formal education system, claiming it was not in line with the Bible. In 2019, he was accused of being linked to the deaths of two children who were apparently starved, suffocated and buried in shallow graves in Shakahora Forest. He was released on bail pending trial.
— AFP