In Kenya, the chief magistrate of the Mombasa court, Alex Ithuku, ordered on Tuesday, February 20, that Paul Mackenzie, the main suspect of the “Shakahola massacre”, and 94 followers of his sect receive emergency care after some of them, too frail and too weak to “even open their eyes” after a hunger strike, had to be carried into the courtroom.
Paul Mackenzie and some of his followers are accused of the deaths of 429 members of his International Church of the Good News, many of whom allegedly starved themselves to death believing they would meet Jesus Christ before the end of the world. The suspects, visibly hungry, pleaded not guilty to all charges, which took four and a half hours to read.
Alex Ithuku, who visited the suspects in the court’s basement cells, said afterwards that he observed that some could barely stand or open their eyes and therefore requested that they are treated immediately. The magistrate ordered that Paul Mackenzie, his wife Rhoda Maweu and the other accused be escorted to hospital to be examined by doctors.
The incident took place between January 2021 and September 2023 in a remote area known as Shakahola Forest in coastal Kilifi County. The bodies were discovered in dozens of shallow graves on a 700-acre ranch after police rescued 15 starving cult members who told investigators that Paul Mackenzie allegedly asked them to fast until death ensues before the end of the world. Four of them died after being taken to hospital.
Autopsies carried out on some of the bodies found in the graves showed that they had died of starvation, strangulation or suffocation. Dr. Johansen Oduor, the Kenyan government’s chief pathologist, said last week that the government would resume the search and recovery of more bodies in the Shakahola forest from March. The operation had been halted so that autopsies and DNA analysis could be carried out on the 429 bodies already found, Mr Oduor said.
