The leader of a Kenyan evangelical sect who preached that the end of world will occur in 2023, is on trial today on manslaughter charges following the deaths of more than 440 followers during the so-called "Shakahola Massacre" – a case that shocked Kenya and the world, France Press recalls, BTA reported.
Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Ntenge McKenzie and dozens of other defendants pleaded not guilty in January.
McKenzie appeared in court in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa along with 94 other suspects, including his wife. He was arrested in April 2023 and accused of inciting his followers to die to "meet Jesus" before the end of the world in 2023
The acts were carried out over several years.
Prosecutors expressed confidence that they would be able to prove the existence of a suicide pact, according to Pter K. Kiprop, deputy state prosecutor, at the opening of the trial.
"There has never been a case like this in Kenya," Alexander Jami Yamina, the supervising prosecutor in the case, told AFP, adding that he had gathered more than 420 witnesses. "Due to the seriousness of the case, we were well prepared".
Against the 95 defendants (40 of whom are women), separate cases of murder, kidnapping, torture of children and cruelty are pending. The remains of more than 440 people were exhumed at an isolated site not far from the southeastern city of Malindi. Autopsies of the victims found that most had died of starvation, but some, including children, had been strangled or beaten. The organs from some of the bodies have been removed.