Dozens more bodies exhumed in ‘starvation cult’ case

Paul Mackenzie and seven others promoted an “extreme belief system” and engaged in “organized criminal” activity between January and July 2025, Kenyan prosecutors have said.

Kenyan prosecutors have filed fresh terrorism-related charges against alleged cult leader Paul Mackenzie and seven associates after investigators discovered the bodies of 52 people buried in shallow graves in southeastern Kilifi County.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said on Wednesday that the eight suspects were charged in three different courts with the offense of “engaging in organized criminal activity” between January and July 2025 at Kwa Binzaro, near the Shakahola forest area on Kenya’s coast.

“The accused persons allegedly killed 29 people on an unknown date between January and July 2025, at Kwa Binzaro area,” the DPP said in a statement posted on X.

The area has been at the center of a massive investigation since more than 430 bodies of people believed to be followers of Mackenzie’s Good News International Church were exhumed from dozens of mass graves in 2023. Autopsies revealed that most victims had died of starvation, while some, including children, were reportedly beaten or strangled.

According to the authorities, Mackenzie urged his followers to fast to death to “meet Jesus” before the end of the world. He was arrested in April 2023 after police rescued 15 emaciated church members, and has since been charged with terrorism, murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, child torture, and cruelty.

Prosecutors allege that even after his arrest, Mackenzie continued to influence followers through intermediaries and financial networks.

In the latest case, the DPP said Mackenzie and the seven others “promoted an extreme belief system by preaching against the authority of the government, adopted an extreme belief system against authority, and facilitated the commission of a terrorist act.”

All eight suspects pleaded not guilty. The next hearing is set for March 4.

This is not the first controversy involving religious leaders in the East African country, where thousands of independent churches operate. In 2023, televangelist Ezekiel Odero of the New Life Prayer Center in Malindi was arrested in a separate investigation linked to alleged deaths at his church. He denied the allegations and was later released.