Paul Mackenzie is accused of ordering hundreds of his followers to starve themselves to death
A doomsday cult leader has been charged with terrorism offenses and the murder of 191 children following the discovery of 429 bodies in a forest area near his church in Kenya.
Paul Mackenzie allegedly instructed his followers to starve themselves to death so they would meet Jesus Christ before the end of the world. However, autopsies show that some died from strangulation or suffocation.
He was arrested last April after police rescued 15 emaciated church members and the first bodies were discovered in shallow graves located in the Shakahola forest area in the coastal county of Kilifi.
Exhumations over the course of several months uncovered 429 bodies, including those of 191 children, only 11 of whom have been identified to date, according to the charge sheet.
Mackenzie is alleged to have forced his followers to destroy their identification documents and forbade them from interacting with anyone outside the cult community.
According to Reuters, the mass starvation of members was designed to occur in three phases: first children, then women, followed by young men, and finally older men.
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