Kenya government closes ministry of cult-leader who led more than 400 followers to kill themselves and “meet Jesus”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The government of Kenya on Friday has finally deregistered the ministry of so-called pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie after the cult leader forced more than 400 members of his congregation to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus, Religion News Service (RNS) reports. The Kenyan government also banned four other churches on the grounds they were promoting religious extremism.

The Kenyan Registrar of Societies announced on August 18 that it had deregistered Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries, known locally among Kenyans as the Shakahola cult, RNS reports.

Government officials were told earlier this year that Mackenzie was leading his congregation to fast to death in order to reach heaven more quickly, RNS said. By August, 427 people had obeyed McKenzie and had died. Their bodies were discovered buried in Shakahola forest in the coastal county of Kilifi.

Mackenzie himself has been in prison since surrendering to the authorities in Mombasa in April, RNS said. On August 8, the court gave police another 47 to detain him in order to complete their investigation. “The pastor faces charges of cruelty toward children, kidnapping and murder, in addition to terrorism,” RNS said in its report. “Most of his victims died of starvation, but others were said to be suffocated, strangled or beaten to death.”

The other ministries now banned by the Registrar of Societies on suspicion of cult-like conduct and radicalization are: the New Life Prayer Centre in Kilifi led by Pastor Ezekiel Odero, the Helicopter Church of Christ in Nairobi, run by Thomas Wahome, Kings Outreach Church, affiliated with the Repentance and Holiness Ministry of renowned tele-evangelist Prophet David Owuor, and Theophilus Church in Nairobi.

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