SAHARA REPORTERS
A Kenyan self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie on Tuesday appeared in court in Malindi over the death of his followers numbering 109 found buried in what has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”.
Mackenzie, the founder of the Good News International Church set up in 2003, who is now accused by prosecutors of inciting followers to starve to death “to meet Jesus” will now face charges bordering on terrorism in the Kenya High Court.
He appeared in the dock in Malindi, according to AFP.
The small courtroom was packed with relatives of victims as Mackenzie, dressed in a pink and black jacket and brown trousers, was brought in by about half a dozen police officers along with eight other defendants, NDTV reports.
After a brief hearing, the case was moved to the high court in Kenya’s second-largest city of Mombasa, where the suspects will face terrorism charges, prosecutor Vivian Kambaga told AFP.
“There is a court (in Mombasa) that is gazetted to handle cases under the prevention of terrorism act,” Vivian Kambaga told a magistrate during the hearing in Malindi, asking for the case to be moved to the high court.
Ezekiel Odero, a wealthy and high-profile televangelist, is also expected at the high court in Mombasa following his arrest in Malindi on Thursday in connection with the same case.
The deeply religious Christian-majority country has been stunned by the discovery of mass graves last month in a forest near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi.
A total of 109 people have so far been confirmed dead, most of them children.
The first autopsies from Shakahola were carried out Monday on nine children and one woman.
They confirmed starvation as the cause of death, though some victims were asphyxiated, the authorities said.
Odero is suspected of murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalisation, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering.
