Kenya cult leader's children still being starved weeks before trial, son says
Dan Mackenzie initially defended his father but now says he felt he had to report his own grandmother.
Kenya cult leader's children still being starved weeks before trial, son says
Paul Mackenzie said education was forbidden and modern medicine was "evil"
The eldest son of Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie, who was convicted of murdering 191 people, says his younger siblings were still being made to fast as recently as two weeks ago.
Dan Mackenzie, 27, said he had alerted police, who rescued eight children, including his five younger siblings, from their grandmother's home and took them to a rescue centre.
"They were basically forcibly fasted because they were denying food to them for almost three days," he tells BBC's Newsday.
His father was found guilty on Monday of murdering 190 children and one adult who starved to death in Shakahola forest, near the Kenyan coast.
He had instructed members of his doomsday cult to starve themselves and their children to death so they could "meet Jesus".
Twenty-eight other cult leaders were also convicted of murder.
Dan Mackenzie, who had originally defended his father, said he had first struggled to make sense of the accusations against the cult leader, but later understood the extent of the tragedy during the court hearings.
"When I was 12, I was forced to fast for almost a week," he says. He also recalls church members beating him for hours to force him to attend a service as a child.
Now, he says he felt compelled to report family members who still believe in the teachings in order to free his siblings. "I had to report my grandmother."
The cult leader's doctrine said that education was forbidden and modern medicine was "evil".
"I left school when I was seven," says Dan.
Now living in the coastal town of Malindi, Dan makes a living as a motorcycle taxi driver, supporting himself and his younger siblings.
He said some people in the town had been angry with him because of his father's crimes, but others "had accepted him because he had distanced himself from that life".
"I hope the verdict would bring some comfort to those who had lost friends and relatives," Dan tells BBC's Newsday.
In her eight-hour judgment in the port city of Mombasa, Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie's followers believed he was "Jesus's mouthpiece".
One of his co-accused told the court that Mackenzie had said anyone who resisted fasting must be forced to go to heaven "through kicks and blows".
Burials in the forest where the cult was based were described as "weddings", with those who died celebrated as having "wedded with Jesus", the judge said.
Mackenzie and other cult leaders also face separate cases involving terrorism, radicalisation and denying children an education.
The murder verdict is the first ruling on the most serious charges against the pastor, who was arrested in 2023 after more than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves in Shakahola forest, near Kenya's coast.
He is due to be sentenced on 6 November.