Page 25 - Malindi News Today

Paul Mackenzie and his followers have been blamed for the deaths of 429 members of his Good News International Church.

Authorities say Paul Mackenzie ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death, to go to heaven.

They will on January 23 face 238 counts of manslaughter.

A Kenyan judge on Wednesday ordered cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 30 associates to undergo mental health evaluations before being charged with the murder of 191 children whose bodies have been exhumed since last April from the Shakahola forest.

The authorities say Paul Nthenge Mackenzie told his followers to starve themselves and their children to death in the Shakahola Forest, where hundreds of bodies have been exhumed.

Mackenzie and the other suspects did not enter pleas in the coastal town of Malindi because High Court Judge Mugure Thande granted a request from prosecutors that they undergo mental health assessments and return to court on February 6

Doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 30 of his followers were presented in a Kenyan court in the coastal town of Malindi on Wednesday to face charges of murdering 191 children.

Doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie is accused of convincing hundreds of people, inluding children, to starve themselves to death to ‘get into heaven’

Mackenzie and the other suspects did not enter pleas because High Court Judge Mugure Thande granted a request from prosecutors that they undergo mental assessments and return to court on Feb. 6.

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to "meet Jesus".