An alleged Kenyan cult leader is facing charges of murder and terrorism over the deaths of about 400 people found in mass graves, prosecutors have said.
Paul Mackenzie was apprehended in April after the discovery of hundreds of bodies, some of them had died of starvation.
Kenyan prosecutors have announced that he and 94 others will be charged in court in Malindi on Wednesday, Jan 17.
However, the self-proclaimed pastor has denied being responsible for the deaths.
The bodies of 429 people, including children, have been excavated from grave sites in Shakahola, a remote forest west of Malindi.
Most of the corpses had showed signs of starvation, but in some – (children) there were signs of assault.
Mr Mackenzie is suspected to have urged the members of his Good News International Church to move there and prepare for the end of the world.
One witness had revealed to the BBC that people were given instructions in January 2023 to start fasting so that they could “get to heaven”.
But Mr Mackenzie has since denied this claim, saying that the deaths could not be up to him as he shut down his church in 2019.
Investigators had appealed for Mackenzie’s time in custody to be prolonged for several times now as they continue their investigation.
The charges were announced a week after the court gave the prosecutors a 2-week deadline to make them public or face the possibility that the suspects could be set free.
Out of the 95 suspects, 64 had been discovered in Shakahola and were originally treated as victims and transported to a rescue centre.
Eventually, investigators discovered that many of them had children who had succumbed to death in the forest.
Some of them had given false names and fake identities and had failed to give an account for their children.
Mackenzie was sentenced last November of illicitly operating a film studio associated with his religious teaching, and distributing films without a legal filming licence.
