Paul Mackenzie, the head of a Kenyan cult, and 29 of his colleagues were charged on Tuesday with the murder of 191 children. The remains of the deceased were discovered buried in a woodland beside over twice as many.
All of the accused refuted the allegations made to them by the court in the seaside town of Malindi. A suspect was judged to be psychologically incompetent to face trial.
The world’s biggest cult-related calamity in recent memory, according to prosecutors, occurred when Mackenzie urged his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they might get to paradise before the world ended.
The followers of his Good News International Church lived in several secluded settlements in an 800-acre area within the Shakahola forest. More than 400 bodies were eventually exhumed.
Mackenzie was arrested last April. He has already been charged with terrorism-related crimes, manslaughter and torture. He was also convicted in December of producing and distributing films without a licence and sentenced to 12 months in jail.
A former taxi driver, Mackenzie forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to hospital when they were ill, branding such institutions as Satanic, some of his followers said.
Mackenzie’s lawyer has said he is cooperating with the investigation into the deaths. The 30 defendants are due back in court on March 7 for a bond hearing, the judge said.
