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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Lifestyle

Kenya declares cult an ‘organised criminal group’ after starvation deaths

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, left, walks surrounded by Kenya police officers and other defendants as he appears at the Shanzu Law Courts in Mombasa on January 18, 2024 [AFP]

Kenyan authorities on Wednesday proscribed the church of a religious leader who ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so that they could go to heaven, as an organised criminal group.

Paul Mackenzie, head of the Good News International Church, is currently facing charges of murder, child torture, and “terrorism” after last April’s discovery of hundreds of bodies of his followers who had starved to death on his instructions.

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