Good News International Church Pastor Paul Mackenzie Pastor Paul Mackenzie, who allegedly encouraged over 400 followers to starve to death in Shakahola, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
Mackenzie appeared in court in Mombasa alongside 94 other suspects on Monday.
He was arrested last April after 429 bodies, including children, were dug up from mass graves in Shakahola.
“There has never been a manslaughter case like this in Kenya,” prosecutor Alexander Jami Yamina told AFP.
Further, Yamina said over 400 witnesses will testify over the next four days.
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Mr Mackenzie is also facing two other trials: one for terrorism, which started in July, and another on child abuse charges, which includes subjecting children to torture, assault, cruelty to children, and infringing a child’s right to education, which he denies.
Survivors say children were supposed to be the first to starve themselves, the unmarried, women, men, and last of all, church leaders according to Mackenzie’s order.
He set up his Church in 2003 but closed it in 2019.
He encouraged his followers to move to Shakahola forest and prepare for the world's end so they could “meet Jesus.”
Pastor Mackenzie is reported to have owned 800 acres of the remote forest without a mobile network.
The forest was partitioned into different areas and given biblical place names, such as Judea, Bethlehem and Nazareth.
In March this year, the authorities released some victims’ bodies to relatives after months of identifying them through DNA tests.
So far, 34 bodies have been returned.
Mr Mackenzie was convicted last November of illegally operating a film studio associated with his preaching and distributing films without a valid filming license and sentenced to a year in prison.
