Kenyan starvation cult leader guilty of murder of 190 children and one adult

Doomsday preacher Paul Mackenzie during a court session of his murder trial judgment at the Mombasa law courts, Kenya on Monday. Photograph: EPAView image in fullscreenDoomsday preacher Paul Mackenzie during a court session of his murder trial judgment at the Mombasa law courts, Kenya on Monday.

Photograph: EPAKenyaKenyan starvation cult leader guilty of murder of 190 children and one adultPaul Mackenzie and his church set up sect that ordered followers to starve themselves and their children, say prosecutors.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleA Kenyan court has found the starvation cult leader Paul Mackenzie and about 30 others guilty of murder over the deaths of ⁠190 children and one adult in one of the world’s worst cult-related disasters in recent history.

Mackenzie foi preso em 2023 após a polícia receber um alerta, e semanas depois as autoridades começaram a descobrir corpos em sepulturas rasas na floresta Shakahola, perto da costa, no sudeste do Quênia.

Prosecutors say Mackenzie and ⁠his Good News International Church organised a Christian doomsday sect in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven before the world ended.

Mackenzie negou acusações de homicídio, dizendo que não forçou as vítimas a morrer de fome, mas o tribunal rejeitou esse argumento.

In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered from the Shakahola forest. Many were severely decomposed, and only 26 of them were able to be identified.

Monday’s judgment covered 191 deaths while investigations into the other deaths are continuing.

A Juíza Diana Kavedza Mochache disse em uma audiência que durou mais de oito horas que, em alguns casos, crianças foram isoladas e privadas de comida enquanto seus pais assistiam.

View image in fullscreenKenyan high court judge Diana Kavedza Mochache on 19 October. Photograph: EPAMackenzie was in court, wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, sitting alongside his wife, ‌one of the co-accused.

He was silent, ‌staring into space before the ruling was handed down.

Parentes de alguns dos que morreram na floresta se reuniram para ouvir o julgamento no Mombasa High Court.

Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight family members including two grandchildren to the cult.

Speaking before the verdict, he said: “It has been really a heavy thing [for] us as a family, and it has really taken us very far in terms of psychological problems.

The Shakahola tragedy has gripped Kenya since the discovery of mass graves in the coastal forest more than three years ago.

Isso levantou questões sobre como Mackenzie conseguiu continuar operando apesar de estar no radar das autoridades desde 2017, quando suas instalações foram fiscalizadas pela polícia.

In 2019, authorities shut down Mackenzie’s church and he relocated ‌to the Shakahola forest, police said.

Ver imagem em tela cheia Um oficial do Serviço Nacional de Juventude do Quênia conversa com uma mulher enquanto está de guarda na entrada dos tribunais de Mombasa no dia 19 de outubro, segunda-feira.

Fotografia: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images. O caso também gerou pedidos por uma supervisão mais rigorosa de igrejas e outras organizações religiosas em um país onde a fé religiosa desempenha um papel proeminente na vida pública.

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths. He said he took responsibility as president.

Pessoas com conhecimento direto das atividades do culto disseram que Mackenzie planejou a fome em massa em três fases: primeiro crianças, depois mulheres e jovens homens, e finalmente os homens restantes.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to hospital when they were ill, describing such institutions as satanic, some of his followers told Reuters for a 2023 article.

Membros do culto viviam em casas improvisadas de lonas de polietileno e palha que Mackenzie dividiu em áreas com nomes bíblicos como Jerusalem e Judea.

View image in fullscreenPaul Mackenzie and his co-accused during their court appearance on 19 October. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty ImagesThe plight of his followers began to emerge in mid-March 2023, when a local man told police that his brother and wife had starved their children to death in the forest on Mackenzie’s orders.

Mackenzie was arrested but released on bail, after which relatives say he brought forward the date on which he told his followers the ‌world would end. Police arrested him again in April 2023 and started combing through the forest more systematically and began exhuming mass graves.

Mackenzie enfrenta outras acusações sobre as mortes na floresta, incluindo acusações relacionadas ao terrorismo, que ele negou.

Prosecutors say while he was in detention he also directed the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, about 18 miles (30km) from Shakahola. Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty in that case.