How did Kenya's starvation cult leader avoid justice for so long? | DW News

Survivors and victim families of Kenya's worst cult-related massacre are hoping for justice as the trial of cult leader Paul Mackenzie begins.

Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed Christian pastor, stands accused of terrorism, manslaughter, and other charges following the deaths of more than 400 of his followers.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, founded what he called the Good News International Church in 2003.

The remains of more than 440 people were discovered and exhumed in an isolated region just inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

Autopsies carried out on 100 victims determined that the majority had died of starvation, but that some, including children, had been strangled, beaten or suffocated.

Court documents reported that certain bodies had had their organs removed in the grim case which has been dubbed the "Shakahola forest massacre."