Pastor who told followers to starve themselves ‘in preparation for heaven’ denies murder despite 429 dead bodies

Acultleaderhasdeniedmurderaftertellinghisfollowerstostarvethemselvestodeathin”preparationfortheendoftheworld”as429bodieswerediscovered.PaulMackenzie,alongwithmorethan90others,willbechargedwithmurder,manslaughter,radicalization,crueltyandchildtorture,afterhundredsofbodieswereduguplastApril.Thechillingfindofmorethan400deadbodiesinmassgravesscatteredacrosstheShakaholaforestinsoutheastKenyaledtothearrestofMackenzie.HemaintainsheisnotresponsibleforthehundredsofdeathswithintheGoodNewsInternationalChurch.

DAILY  STAR

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has denied murder after telling his followers to starve themselves to death in “preparation for the end of the world” as 429 bodies were discovered.

Paul Mackenzie, along with more than 90 others, will be charged with murder, manslaughter, radicalization, cruelty and child torture, after hundreds of bodies were dug up last April.

The chilling find of more than 400 dead bodies in mass graves scattered across the Shakahola forest in southeast Kenya led to the arrest of Mackenzie. He maintains he is not responsible for the hundreds of deaths within the Good News International Church.

Bodies dug up from the horror gravesite showed signs of starvation, with many of the deceased showings signs of abuse, including the children.

Mackenzie stands accused of telling those he preached to they needed to starve themselves to prepare to enter heaven, with members of the Good News International Church allegedly doing what was asked of them.

The church head denies all charges levelled at him as he claims the deaths of hundreds were not his fault as he shut down the church in 2019, the Daily Mail reported.

Kenya’s interior secretary Kithure Kindiki says the discovery of the bodies and the case itself was “the clearest abuse of the constitutionally enshrined human right to freedom of worship.”