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

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. "I had to report my grandmother."

The cult leader's doctrine said that education was forbidden and modern medicine was "evil".

"I left school when I was seven," says Dan.

Now living in the coastal town of Malindi, Dan earns a living as a motorcycle taxi driver, supporting himself and his younger siblings.

He said some people in the town had been angry with him because of his father's crimes, but others "had accepted him because he had distanced himself from that life".

"I hope the verdict would bring some comfort to those who had lost friends and relatives," Dan tells BBC's Newsday.

On Monday, Stephen Mwiti, 48, who said he had lost all six of his children to the cult, welcomed the verdict.

"I'm a happy man, that all persons have been convicted," he told the BBC outside court.

His former wife was one of those convicted of murder alongside Mackenzie.

Delivering her eight-hour judgment in the port city of Mombasa, Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie's followers believed he was "Jesus's mouthpiece".

One of his co-accused told the court that Mackenzie had said anyone who resisted fasting must be forced to go to heaven "through kicks and blows".

Burials in the forest where the cult was based were described as "weddings", with those who died celebrated as having "wedded with Jesus", the judge said.

Mackenzie and other cult leaders also face separate cases involving terrorism, radicalisation and denying children an education.

The murder verdict is the first ruling on the most serious charges against the pastor, who was arrested in 2023 after more than 400 bodies were discovered in shallow graves in Shakahola forest, near Kenya's coast.

He is due to be sentenced on 6 November.

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