NAIROBI, May 2 (Portal) – A Kenyan cult leader accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death appeared in court on Tuesday as investigators searched for more bodies in a forest in eastern Kenya, where already 101 bodies were dug up.
Kenyan authorities say the dead were members of the Good News International Church led by Paul Mackenzie, 50, who predicted the end of the world on April 15 and ordered his followers to kill themselves to be the first to get to heaven .
The death toll stands at 109 – 101 bodies, mostly children found in mass graves and eight people found alive who later died – but could rise further. According to the Interior Ministry, more than 400 people are missing.
Mackenzie, who is in police custody, has not commented publicly on the allegations against him, nor has he had to plead any criminal charges. Two lawyers working for him declined to comment.
An investigator involved in the case, who asked not to be identified, told Portal Mackenzie denied ordering his followers to fast.
Mackenzie faces a number of charges related to previous alleged offences, but prosecutors have yet to issue an indictment relating to the mass graves.
Citizen Television showed Mackenzie appearing in court in the coastal town of Malindi, about an hour and a half’s drive from Shakahola Forest, where the mass graves were found.
Wearing a pink shirt and jacket, he stood alongside eight other cult members.
Kenyan media reported that the Malindi court had moved the case to the larger port city of Mombasa.
The government’s chief pathologist said Monday that so far 10 autopsies have been carried out on the bodies of an adult and nine children. Most showed signs of starvation, while two children showed signs of suffocation, he said.
Reporting by George Obulutsa, Humphrey Malalo and Duncan Miriri, editing by Angus MacSwan
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