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Kenya starvation cult leader on trial for manslaughter over deaths of more than 400 followers
The leader of a Kenyan starvation sect went on trial on Monday for manslaughter over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers in one of the world’s worst cult-related tragedies.
Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and dozens of other suspects pleaded not guilty in January to multiple counts of manslaughter, one of several cases against them over what is known as the “Shakahola Forest Massacre“.
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Mackenzie appeared in a magistrate’s court in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa along with 94 other suspects, prosecutors and court officials said.
“There has never been a manslaughter case like this in Kenya,” prosecutor Alexander Jami Yamina told AFP, adding that they will be charged under a Kenyan law dealing with suicide pacts.
“This is going to be a very unique manslaughter case.”
At least 420 witnesses have been prepared by the prosecutors, with the hearing scheduled to run for four days.
“Due to the gravity of the case, we have prepared well,” Yamina said.
Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his followers to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in a case that provoked horror in Kenya and across the world.
The 55 men and 40 women went on trial last month on charges of terrorism over the Shakahola massacre, and also face separate cases of murder and child torture and cruelty relating to the deaths, which prosecutors say occurred over the years 2020 to 2023.
Mackenzie was arrested in April last year after several bodies were first discovered in the remote Shakahola forest that lies inland from the Indian Ocean town of Malindi.
Rescuers spent many months searching the scrubland and have now unearthed around 440 bodies from mass graves.
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Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
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“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.