Kenya cult leader's children still being starved weeks before trial, son says

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   Kenya cult leader's children still being starved weeks before trial, son says

   BBC NewsPublished Oct 20, 2026Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “Paul Mackenzie said education was forbidden and modern medicine was "evil" The eldest son of Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie, convicted of murdering 191 people, says his younger siblings were still being forced to fast as recently as two weeks ago. Dan Mackenzie, 27, said he reported the case to police, who rescued eight children, including his five younger siblings from their grandmother's house, and took them to a rescue centre. "They were basically forcibly fasted because they were denying food to them for almost three days," he tells BBC's Newsday. His father was found guilty on Monday of murdering 190 children and one adult who starved to death in Shakahola forest, near the Kenyan coast. He had ordered members of his doomsday cult to starve themselves and their children to death so they could "meet Jesus". Twenty-eight other cult leaders were also convicted of murder. Kenya cult leader who told parents to starve children guilty of 191 murders Dan Mackenzie, who had initially defended his father, said at first he had struggled to understand the allegations against the cult leader, but came to realise the scale of the tragedy during the court proceedings. "When I was 12, I was forced to fast for almost a week," he says. He also remembers church members beating him for hours to make him attend a service as a child. Now, he says he felt he had to report family members who still believe in the teachings in order to free his siblings.”

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   Shakahola Forest incident (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaChecked Oct 20, 2026

   “The Shakahola Forest incident, also known as the Shakahola massacre, had involved a religious cult in Kenya led by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, founder of Good News International Ministries, an apocalyptic Christian group. The incident came to public attention in March of 2023 when a concerned man reported to the police that his wife and daughter, who had traveled from Nairobi, Kenya, to join Mackenzie's remote Good News International Ministries in Kilifi County had not returned. Upon investigating the community, police discovered emaciated people and shallow graves. They rescued fifteen members of the group who revealed that they had been instructed to starve themselves to death to "meet Jesus". Despite the rescue efforts, four of the fifteen followers died before reaching the hospital due to their critical condition.”

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   Good News International Ministries (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaChecked Oct 20, 2026

   “The Good News International Ministries (GNIM), also known as the Good News International Church and the Servant P. N. Mackenzie Ministries, and commonly referred to as the Shakahola cult, is an apocalyptic Christian new religious movement which was founded by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his first wife in 2003. Following the deaths of over 400 of its members and their children at the movement's base in Shakahola, Kilifi County, Kenya, the group has been designated by the Kenyan government as an organized criminal group. As of August 2024, Mackenzie was on trial, accused of manslaughter, torture and terrorism. GNIM attracted international attention in April 2023 when it was revealed that Mackenzie had allegedly instructed members to starve themselves en masse to "meet Jesus," resulting in the deaths of over 400 people. The group, widely described as a cult or doomsday cult, is adamantly anti-Western, with amenities such as health care, education, and sports being dismissed as "evils of western life" and with Mackenzie condemning the United States, United Nations, and the Catholic Church as "tools of Satan". The group devotes much of its teachings to the end times.”