The pastor was arrested in April 2023 for allegedly urging his followers to starve themselves to death in pursuit of "meeting Jesus." Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor, appeared in court alongside 94 co-defendants.
The trial of Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, the leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult, has begun in Mombasa.
The cult leader is accused of terrorism linked to the deaths of more than 400 of his devoted followers.
Mackenzie, whose cult prophesied an impending apocalypse, stands accused of orchestrating mass suicide events that claimed the lives of hundreds.
The pastor was arrested in April 2023 for allegedly urging his followers to starve themselves to death in pursuit of "meeting Jesus." Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor, appeared in court alongside 94 co-defendants.
It was gathered that journalists were asked to leave the courtroom shortly after the hearing began to accommodate the testimony of a protected witness.
However, he and his co-accused all pleaded not guilty to the charges of terrorism at a hearing in January.
They are also accused in separate cases of murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, and child torture and cruelty.
The remains of over 440 people were discovered in a remote wilderness near the coastal town of Malindi, known as the 'Shakahola forest massacre'.
SaharaReporters reported in February that a Kenyan court had charged Paul Nthenge Mackenzie with the murder of his followers in a forest near the Indian Ocean.
Mackenzie, who has already been charged with terrorism, manslaughter as well as child torture and cruelty, was charged along with dozens of suspected accomplices.
The pastor who was alleged to have incited hundreds of his acolytes to starve to death to “meet Jesus” and 29 other suspects pleaded not guilty to 191 counts of murder, according to court documents seen by Agence France-Presse.
A 31st suspect was deemed to lack the mental fitness to stand trial and ordered to return to the Malindi High Court in a month’s time.
Kenyan authorities in January 2024, proscribed the church of the religious leader.