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About Shakahola Cult Massacre
Christian , Military
Civil Rights , Africa
Ends: Mar 21, 2024
DESCRIPTION:
March 21, 2023, is the assumed anniversary of the beginning of the Shakahola Cult Massacre. The actual date is yet to be determined.
The Shakahola Cult Massacre is the largest religious cult suicide since Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple led 909 of his followers in Guyana to drink cyanide-laced Flavor-aid in 1978. To date (July 2023), 419 bodies have been exhumed, and 613 people remain unaccounted for. Should all be found dead, Shakahola cult suicide victims will exceed Jonestown by over 100 people. Unlike Jonestown, the Malindi Cult adult members chose their death through starvation, which can take weeks.
The actual date of the first suicide is yet to be determined, though autopsies point to fasting commencing mid-early March. As the massacre was prompted by loosely Christian religious teachings, March 21, the Spring Equinox, is a probable date. April 7, Good Friday (the day Jesus Christ was tortured) was too late, and the beginning of the six-week Christian fast of Lent on Ash Wednesday, February 22, fell too early.
The world discovered the shocking event in April 2023, when a man reported missing his wife and daughter after joining Paul Nthenge Mackenzie's Good News International Ministries community in Kilifi County, Kenya.
According to eyewitness testimonies, Mackenzie instructed his followers to fast and sequester from the outside world, threatening death to those who changed their minds or took too long to die. Police investigating the community found emaciated bodies and shallow graves but were able to rescue fifteen members; four died on the way to the hospital. By May 10, 2023, 133 deaths were documented, primarily children and women, with evidence of starvation, strangulation, suffocation, and blunt trauma as causes of death. A total of ninety-one starving survivors emerged and were rescued, with 65 facing suicide charges, a crime in Kenya, in court.
Mackenzie allegedly used William Branham's End of Days Theology to brainwash his followers, convincing them that starvation would lead to a quicker journey to be with Jesus. Police suspected forced organ harvesting from some bodies, but the Interior Cabinet Secretary denied these claims as political speculation. Autopsies have ruled out organ harvesting for 112 of the recovered bodies.
Ultimately, 36 suspects were arrested, with one dying during a hunger strike in custody. Mackenzie, his third wife Rhoda Mumbua Maweu, and 16 others face terrorism-related charges.
Update: On February 6, 2024, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie was charged with 191 counts of murder in a Kenyan court.
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