Kenyan cult leader Mackenzie convicted of murder: Son says he was forced to fast, beaten, and left school at 7

According to BBC, a court in Mombasa, Kenya, convicted cult leader Mackenzie and several co-defendants of murder. Those convicted in the same case included the ex-wife of 48-year-old Stephen Mvithi. This was the first guilty verdict on the most serious charges against Mackenzie; he and other cult leaders are also facing separate cases involving terrorism, radicalization and the denial of children’s education.

In 2023, after more than 400 bodies were found in a shallow pit in Shakahola Forest near the Kenyan coast, Mackenzie was arrested. He is expected to be sentenced on November 6, and his sentence has not yet been announced.

Presiding Judge Diana Mochache said Mackenzie’s followers believed he was “the spokesperson for Jesus”; burials in the forest were called “weddings,” and the dead were celebrated as having “married Jesus.” A co-defendant told the court that Mackenzie had said those who resisted fasting had to be “sent to heaven” through fists and feet. Court testimony laid out a mechanism of physical and educational control cloaked in religion: fasting was turned into a requirement for reaching heaven, and those who resisted were forced through punches and kicks; doctrine prohibited education, while modern medicine was labeled “evil.”

Mackenzie’s son Dan initially defended his father. He said he struggled at first to understand the charges against his father and only gradually came to realize the scale of the disaster as the trial progressed. “When I was 12, I was forced to go nearly a week without eating,” Dan recalled. Church members also beat him for hours on end to force him to attend services. Mackenzie’s doctrine prohibited education and described modern medicine as “evil.” Dan said: “I left school at seven.” He now lives in Marindi, supports himself by driving a motorcycle taxi and also supports his younger siblings.

Dan now also said that he reported relatives to authorities, including his grandmother, to free his younger siblings from family members who still adhered to his father’s teachings: “I had to report my grandmother.” BBC, citing Dan, also reported that in the weeks before the trial, some of Mackenzie’s children were still going hungry.

The 48-year-old Stephen Mvithi welcomed the verdict outside the court. He said the cult had taken all six of his children: “I am a happy man, everyone has been convicted.”

The guilty verdict established Mackenzie’s and his co-defendants’ responsibility for the murders, but it could not bring back Mvithi’s six children. Dan added that some people in town were angry with him because of Mackenzie’s crimes, while others accepted him because he had cut ties with that life. “I hope this verdict can bring some comfort to those who have lost loved ones,” he said.