Kenyan cult pastor found guilty of illegal filming; not yet charged over 400 deaths
Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, a Kenyan preacher linked to a doomsday cult resulting in over 400 deaths after he ordered church members to fast so they could “meet Jesus,” has been found guilty of operating a film studio without a license.
Olga Onalo, the senior resident magistrate in Malindi, convicted Mackenzie for unauthorized film exhibition through his Times Television, bypassing the Kenya Film Classification Board, The Associated Press reported.
Mackenzie, held in custody for over six months since his April arrest, faces the fallout of a grisly discovery: hundreds of bodies in mass graves on his 800-acre property in Kilifi county. Despite this, he was not charged for the deaths.
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The preacher, tied to starvation directives to his followers in a quest to meet Jesus, evaded additional charges of influencing children against schooling and inciting religious hatred. Sentencing for the film offenses is slated for Dec. 1, potentially leading to a five-year prison term, the AP said.
Prosecutors pushed for extended custody, allowing police to conclude investigations, including tracing missing individuals. This arrest and the subsequent Shakahola forest raid, prompted by reports of starvation under Mackenzie’s influence, have sparked demands for stricter church regulation in Kenya.
The cult, known for its reimagined “Holy Land” with biblically named villages, has been under scrutiny since the BBC reported escapee children’s accounts of family deaths due to starvation, a claim echoed by former cult members.
The British broadcaster spoke to Stephen Mwiti, whose wife, Bahati Joan, believed in the prophecy and vanished from Malindi, southeast Kenya, with their six children last August.
Bahati Joan and her children were discovered to have joined Pastor Mackenzie’s congregation in the isolated Shakahola forest, a two-hour drive from Malindi and known for its thorn bushes, thickets and sweltering heat.
Nthenge had turned himself over to the police and was charged after two children starved to death in their parents’ custody in March. He was initially released on bail of $700 (100,000 Kenyan shillings) but was arrested again on April 15 after the discovery of four more bodies at the time.
Former church members have claimed they were forced to starve as part of their adherence to its teachings.
BBC quoted Titus Katana, an escapee, as saying that those who tried to leave the cult were branded as traitors and violently attacked. He also suggested there was an order in which people were supposed to die, with children being the first to go.
