Grief gives way to anger as Kenyan starvation cult leader faces trial

Kenyan teenager Samuel was initially excited to leave his home in the coastal town of Malindi along with his mother and brother to follow their church leader into the east African nation’s remote Shakahola forest.

But his hopes for a new life were dashed shortly after they arrived at the sprawling and isolated site where Christian cult leader Paul Mackenzie had bought 800 acres of land.

“We were told, ‘You’ll never get out, and if you dare to try we’ll discipline you’,” Samuel, now 22, said. “If I hadn’t been rescued, I could have died.”

Samuel — not his real name, as he requested anonymity — was part of a sect that told followers they should fast until they died, in return for salvation. The Good News International Church centred around Mackenzie drove at least 429 people to their deaths, according to officials. Hundreds died from starvation, while others were killed by the pastor’s henchmen and other church members. Many were children. 

Mackenzie is now on trial on charges of murder, terrorism and torture. He denies the allegations. Several dozen associates are accused alongside him.

The events in the Shakahola forest, some 70km inland from Malindi, shocked Kenya when they came to light last year. Police found dozens of mass graves scattered across a vast area and many of the dead have still not been retrieved. Only 34 have been identified, according to Johansen Oduor, chief government pathologist.

But despite the nationwide outrage, observers say there has been little attempt to curtail such cults. “Hard lessons have not been learnt,” said Peter Mumo, associate professor of religion at the University of Nairobi.

Pentecostal churches such as Mackenzie’s, which are often centred around a charismatic individual who claims to speak directly to God, have “continued business as usual”, with little sign of membership decreasing, he said.

New churches can be founded easily in Kenya, where they require no statement of doctrine and leaders need no qualifications. Through TV channels and social media, pastors can quickly acquire huge followings.

In order to curb harmful cults such as Mackenzie’s, a report published in October by a Kenyan senate committee investigating the tragedy recommended strengthening the Registrar of Societies, the government body that regulates organisations such as churches, establishing independent watchdogs and enhancing surveillance of sects. 

But several organisations representing churches lobbied against regulation, arguing before the committee that the massacre was an isolated criminal case.

Mumo said the government showed little appetite for regulation, attributing this in part to President William Ruto, an evangelical Christian, owing some of his electoral success to support from Pentecostal churches. 

Senate committee chair Danson Mungatana could not be reached for comment.

Observers warn that the threat some sects pose is not confined to Kenya. “The Pentecostal movement is on the rise”, with the number of followers in east Africa among the highest in the world, Mumo said.

With their emphasis on healing, interpretation of dreams and prophecy, the sects spoke to the African experience and appealed to people whose needs were not met by mainstream churches, which developed out of colonial missions, according to Benson Mulemi, a Kenyan anthropologist and research associate at the University of Pretoria.

Mackenzie, whom his followers called “papa” or “leader”, worked as a taxi driver in Malindi before establishing his church in 2003. Initially he preached at the home of Ruth and David Kahindi, who co-founded the organisation. 

Their daughter Naomi, 48, said her parents left the church when Mackenzie became more radical and urged his followers to reject education and medicine. But she did not expect what came next, saying: “I never imagined Mackenzie could be that cruel.”

After being arrested several times and charged with radicalisation and inciting children to reject school, though not jailed at the time, Mackenzie retreated to the forest in 2020 and called on his followers to join him. 

The area had no roads, power, schools or clinics. Mackenzie “manipulated gullible followers” into destroying their ID cards, selling their possessions and giving him the money in return for a small parcel of land, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said in a report published in March.

Samuel, whose family arrived in 2021, said they initially fasted only for short periods and that Mackenzie gave out food. Some followers starved voluntarily, he said, “but at some point they forced people to fast. Then people started dying”.

Armed enforcers supervised the process, according to the senate report. “Those who defied the directive to fast or attempted to escape were either strangled or clobbered to death”, it said.

“While his followers faced a slow and painful death through starvation, Paul Mackenzie and his gang of violent enforcers enjoyed elaborate meals,” the report added.

Francis Wanje, a teacher living near Mombasa, was the first to raise the alarm publicly after receiving a call from a relative in mid-March 2023 telling him his family was in danger.

He arranged for police to go to Shakahola to look for his daughter and grandchildren but only his eight-year-old grandson was found. Emaciated and weak, “he was almost at the point of death,” said Wanje. When asked about his brothers, the boy pointed out two graves. “He said they went to see Jesus.”

Wanje contacted the police in the nearby town of Lango Bayo and in Malindi but said no action was taken. According to the senate report, the police waited a further five days before returning to the forest. Mackenzie was arrested in late March 2023 but released on bail of Ks10,000 ($76) and returned to his followers, where he “intensified his starvation orders”, according to the senate report.

Officers finally took Mackenzie into custody and sent investigators back to the site in mid-April.

A year on, public grief has given way to anger. The KNCHR said the security services “unjustifiably failed to act” as information emerged, while the senate report said officers had failed to appear before the committee investigating the deaths.

Yet even in the face of the horror, the pull of the cults remains powerful. Pentecostal churches were “merchants of hope” for those facing socio-economic issues and their allure would not dwindle unless the root causes of these problems were addressed, said Mumo.  

Despite all that Samuel has witnessed, he does not blame Mackenzie. “He’s not responsible for any deaths”, he said, arguing other church members took the lead. Asked whether he would join if Mackenzie were to found a new church, he replied: “I would.”