Court To Release Mackenzie If Police Don’t Charge Him Within 14Days

The Court has warned of it’s intention to release Paul Mackenzie and his associates if the State fails to charge them in 14 days.

The Public Prosecutor has until January 23 to charge Paul Mackenzie, the leader of the Shakahola forest starvation cult, blamed for the death of over 400 followers of his so-called Good News International Church.

Shanzu Principal Magistrate Yousuf Shikanda issued the new ultimatum on Tuesday citing the historic length of pre-trial detention on Mackenzie and his associates.

Mackenzi was first arrested on April 15, 2023, for allegedly telling his followers to starve themselves to death in order to ‘get to heaven faster’.

The cult leader was accused of using religion to brainwash members of his congregation, some of whom denounced education and getting health aid from hospitals.

More than 400 dead bodies of men, women, and even newly born babies have been exhumed from the Shakahola mass graves.

Mackenzie was last year  jailed for 12 months for the offence of operating a film studio and producing films without a valid license.

Malindi Senior Resident Magistrate Olga Onalo also slapped him with another six-month jail term for showing the films to members of the public, through Times TV, without having an operating license.  

The sentences will run concurrently.

The offences faced by Mackenzie attract a jail term not exceeding one year and an alternative fine not exceeding Ksh. 100,000.