Inside the Kenyan starvation cult suspected of sending 100 people to their deaths

Dozens of bodies have been discovered so far in shallow graves in a forest near land owned by a pastor Paul Makenzi in coastal Kenya who was arrested for telling his followers to fast to death. Photo /AP

As police recovered more than 100 bodies from a forest close to a fringe church in eastern Kenya this week, Priscilla Riziki watched reports with growing dread.

The 43-year-old was once a follower of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, a pastor who has been arrested on suspicion of encouraging his disciples to starve themselves to death to reach God.

Riziki fled his Good News International Church when she became increasingly alarmed by its extreme teachings, but her daughter and son-in-law, along with her three grandchildren, remained adherents.

She has not seen them since March and, as body after body has been exhumed from Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi, she now fears the worst.

“We have heard reports the young ones could have starved to death, or were strangled, or my son-in-law was captured by some men who could not allow him to leave,” she told The Telegraph.

Dozens of bodies have been discovered so far in shallow graves on land owned by a pastor Paul Makenzi in coastal Kenya who was arrested for telling his followers to fast to death. Photo / AP

The discovery of mass graves has shocked Kenya and prompted calls for the tighter regulation of fringe religious groups. Kithure Kindiki, Kenya’s interior minister, said on Friday that children accounted for most of the 109 bodies so far, and not all had died of starvation.

Kenya’s Red Cross Society has said more than 213 people are missing.

The case has drawn comparisons with previous cult-related mass deaths, including Jonestown, Waco and the Uganda Doomsday Sect.

The Kenyan state is facing growing questions over how it allowed the church to operate, despite years of warning signs, large numbers of complaints and several police investigations.

As pressure built on the government, another Kenyan pastor, Ezekiel Odero, flamboyant head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, was arrested last week in an investigation into deaths among his own followers.

Prosecutors allege Odero and Mackenzie had shared business dealings and extorted money from their congregations.

Mackenzie’s church took hold in an underdeveloped strip of the Kenyan coast known for low literacy, poor health and poverty. Nearby tourist towns have not brought prosperity, but have added to problems with prostitution and drug addiction.

Riziki and other former followers told The Telegraph that when he first arrived, he was clean-living, humble and generous.

She said: “Initially, when I first heard him preach he was very persuasive, always quoting the Bible and explaining it. We believed he could foretell events. He could cast out demons and heal the sick through miracles.

“Now I cannot tell whether he was using some other power but at that time we believed he was a true servant of God.”

She later became alarmed at his teachings, however, as he railed against education and medicine, insisting followers stop going to school, or using Western medicine.

“Suddenly he decreed that female worshippers could not wear make-up. He ordered us to bring forward our earrings, necklaces and other adornments he considered ungodly and he set them on fire.”

Riziki was alarmed enough to leave the church in 2016, after eight years in the congregation, but by then she believed that her daughter Laureen had fallen under Mackenzie’s spell.

Pastor Paul Makenzi, was arrested on suspicion of telling his followers to fast to death in order to meet Jesus. Photo / AP

“My daughter refused to sit for the final examination because the pastor had begun to preach against examinations and school,” she recalls.

Police arrested Mackenzie, her daughter and others in 2017, following reports the pastor was preaching against schooling.

She was freed to sit her examinations, but she refused and fled to live in the church. She soon found a husband among the congregation and was married by the pastor.

“She only told me about the marriage and wedding two days after the ceremony. I had to accept the wedding and marriage and soon she bore me grandchildren,” said Riziki.

Mackenzie soon moved his church from a compound in Malindi town to a more remote spot in Shakahola.

Her daughter made only occasional visits back to the family home and was reluctant to talk about what went on at the church. Riziki accuses the pastor of brainwashing her daughter.

She said: “I called [Laureen] once and she told me she was okay but whenever she came home to visit me she was reluctant to discuss what was happening at Shakahola. She told me she could not visit frequently, because all worshippers required the pastor’s permission to leave the sanctuary.”

Followers were told not to attend hospitals and Riziki speculated that some of the victims could have died from illness.

The church appeared to follow classic patterns seen in cults, said Isabell Zattu, a psychologist at the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa.

The area’s social problems had left a large pool of vulnerable people seeking messages of salvation or redemption. These people can be preyed on by unscrupulous religious leaders.

“Anyone who is vulnerable, say a jobless person, or someone going through family issues, a divorce, or somebody who is suffering from a long-term illness, they tend to get vulnerable to these people.

“A person like Mackenzie taps into that vulnerability by promising things, for example spiritual healing.”

Isolating members from the rest of their family was also common and a way to maintain control over followers. Zattu said Mackenzie appeared to have deliberately moved his church to a more isolated site.

She added: “These people left their homes and told their families, this is the last time you are going to see me, we will meet again in heaven. Isolation works big time in this scenario.”

“From the videos I have watched I think he was naturally bullying and controlling. Someone who likes to coerce people into doing things. You can’t question, you can’t ask, what he tells you is final.”

Mackenzie has denied any wrongdoing and remains in custody.

Another former follower, who had known Mackenzie from before he began his church, said the church leader was previously a taxi driver.

Japheth Charo said Mr Mackenzie had been clean-living and well-liked. He disappeared one day and was not seen for a year. When he returned he was a born-again Christian and began to preach.

“He was a good speaker and very persuasive. Unlike other preachers we had seen, Pastor Makenzie knew the Bible very well. He also knew the Koran very well and would compare scriptures [from both].”

Yet Charo became alarmed by the preaching and left after two years.

“He began to attack other religions, especially Islam and other Christian denominations.”

Charo’s breaking point arrived when Makenzie began to dissuade local residents from Western education and medicine.

“He preached that Jesus never went to school but had succeeded as the greatest person that ever lived and also that he never went to hospital.”