MOMBASA, Kenya — Kenyan prosecutors have filed fresh terrorism-related and organized-crime charges against self-styled preacher Paul Mackenzie and seven others over the deaths of at least 52 people in Kwa Binzaro, Kilifi County, expanding one of the world’s deadliest cult-linked investigations.
The new case follows the 2023 Shakahola mass-graves tragedy, where more than 400 bodies were recovered in Kilifi in what investigators said was linked to starvation teachings inside Mackenzie’s Good News International Church network.
According to Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), the latest counts include participation in organized criminal activity, radicalization, and facilitating a terrorist act tied to deaths at Kwa Binzaro, about 30 km from Shakahola. The accused pleaded not guilty, and the next hearing is scheduled for March 4.
Investigators say the Binzaro discoveries suggest the network’s lethal influence persisted beyond Mackenzie’s 2023 arrest. Reuters reported prosecutors alleging he continued directing activities from detention, including through handwritten notes and financial channels.
This fresh indictment sits alongside earlier murder and terrorism proceedings already underway against Mackenzie and associates in relation to Shakahola deaths. In 2024, he and co-defendants pleaded not guilty in major child-murder and terrorism-related files.
The government’s legal framing has now shifted from isolated criminal acts toward an alleged structured extremist enterprise. If the prosecution proves command-and-control continuity after detention, the case could become a precedent for how Kenya handles violent religious radicalization under counterterror and organized-crime statutes. (
The wider policy dilemma remains sensitive. Kenya is majority Christian, and past attempts to tighten oversight of religious organizations have met fierce resistance on constitutional grounds, especially around freedom of worship and church-state boundaries. For families of victims, the immediate priorities are clear: faster forensic identification, witness protection, and transparent trial progress across the overlapping case files. For the state, the test is whether prosecution can deliver accountability without triggering selective or politically misused regulation of faith communities
