Nairobi, Oct 19 (AP) The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult linked to more than 400 deaths was convicted Monday of murdering 191 children in one of the country’s most significant cases involving religious extremism.
Justice Diana Kavedza ruled that the deaths resulted from an organised system in which religious teachings were used to compel followers to fast to death.
Pastor Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church in coastal Kenya, ordered his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus and established an elaborate leadership structure to enforce the fasting.
In 2023, more than 400 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves on the 800-acre Chakama Ranch in coastal Kilifi County, where Mackenzie’s followers lived in mud huts, away from the scrutiny of local communities and authorities.
(PTI News)
