A Mombasa court will deliver a long-awaited verdict on Monday in the trial of a self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher and his associates, accused of murdering 191 people, mostly children, in an infamous starvation cult.
In the three years since the grisly discovery, more bodies of children, women and men have been unearthed in the surrounding area, bringing the total to well over 400. During the trial, the court heard from more than 120 witnesses on events between 2021 and 2023 in the 800-acre ranch in Shakahola Forest. Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023, after some followers were rescued when a rights group tipped off the authorities.
The prosecution alleges that Mackenzie “initiated and directed” the extreme fasting, claiming there was a “structured hierarchy of death” which saw children first, then teens, women, and then men. The prosecution says the children “died from starvation, features consistent with starvation, asphyxia, neck compression and traumatic head injury”, drawing on evidence from post-mortems and police. He was arrested in 2017 over charges of “radicalisation”, acquitted, and then again in 2019 in Shakahola, after the deaths of two children from starvation.
Relatives of the victims were expected in court, many making their way to Mombasa from rural communities along the coast.
