The number of followers of a sect who fasted to death in order to go to heaven has reached 73, Kenyan police announced this evening.

“So far we have found 73 bodies in the forest” and the search will continue tomorrow, a police source told AFP.

Who is the leader of the sect

Paul Mackenzie Dhenge, the man accused of starving his followers to death in eastern Kenya, is a former taxi driver who in 2003 declared himself a “pastor” and whose extreme preaching has led to his arrest twice in recent years.

Today, Mackenzie Dhenge is accused of the “Sakahola massacre” – after the name of the forest where dozens of bodies of members of the International Church of Joyful News, which he founded in 2003, were found. Based on the still provisional account announced by its leader police officer Japhet Kume, 73 believers died. Kenyan President William Ruto spoke of the work of “terrorists”.

Police, in a statement on April 14, initially said local authorities intervened after being informed that “innocent citizens were starving to death believing they would meet Jesus, after being brainwashed.” That same night Paul Mackenzie Dhenge, knowing he was wanted, surrendered to the police. He has since been detained and will appear in court on May 2.

On the website of his organization it is stated that the church “was founded on August 17, 2003 by the servant of God P.N. Mackenzie.” Having established branches in many parts of Kenya, the International Church of Good News is estimated to have more than 3,000 members – 1,000 of them in the coastal city of Malindi.

“The end of the world”

“The mission of this church is to nurture believers in a holistic way in all areas of Christian spirituality while we prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ through teaching and evangelism,” he writes on the website.

Paul Mackenzie Dhenge broadcast a program called “End of the World Messages” in which he referred to “teachings, sermons and prophecies about the end of the world commonly called eschatology”. He claimed that he “brings the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ free from the deception and wisdom of man.” In 2017, he also started a YouTube channel, where the sermons he preached at his church in Malindi were shown. Among other things, he warned believers not to follow the practices of the “demon”, such as not wearing wigs and dealing only with cash. In the same year he was arrested for the first time on the charge of “radicalization”, because he preached not to send children to school because schooling is not recognized in the Holy Bible.

He stated that he closed his church two years later and settled in the village of Sakahola, in the forest. “I had the epiphany that it was time to stop,” he told The Nation newspaper on March 25. “I pray alone and with those who have chosen to believe,” he added.

A few days later he was arrested again, on suspicion of the death of two children who starved to death on his orders, according to Japhet Koume. The police chief assured that Mackenzie urged his followers to “fast unto death to meet their Maker”. He was released on bail of 100,000 shillings (about 670 euros). In his interview with the newspaper he said he was “shocked by the accusations against him”.

A few weeks later, the police found his first victims in the Sakahola forest: 15 skeletal believers, four of whom died on the way to a hospital.