Kenya starvation cult leader to face murder charges
STORY: A Kenyan judge on Wednesday (January 17) ordered cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 30 associates to undergo mental health evaluations.
That's before being charged with the murder of 191 children.
Authorities say Mackenzie, the head of the Good News International Church, ordered his followers in southeastern Kenya to starve themselves and their children to death.
That was, he had allegedly told them, so they could go to heaven before the end of the world.
People with knowledge of the cult said last year that Mackenzie had planned the mass starvation in three phases, starting with the children.
Cult members were also forbidden from sending their children to school or visiting hospital, some of his followers have said, with Mackenzie branding such institutions as Satanic.
The 191 children are among over 400 bodies to have been exhumed since last April from the Shakahola forest.
It is one of the world's worst cult-related tragedies in recent history.
Prosecutors say they will charge 95 people in total on counts of murder, manslaughter, terrorism and torture.
A lawyer for Mackenzie, who has been in custody since police started unearthing the bodies, has said the self-styled pastor is cooperating with the investigation.
The prosecution request for mental health assessments was granted at a hearing in the coastal town Malindi.
The 31 defendants are expected to be formally charged and enter pleas in two weeks.
