Malindi cult

Good News International Ministries
Good News International Ministries website logo.jpg
Logo used on Mackenzie's website
ClassificationChristian new religious movement
Eschatological, anti-Western church movement
OrientationEvangelicalism, Branhamism
LeaderPaul Nthenge Mackenzie (2003–present)
RegionShakahola forest, Kilifi County, Malindi, Kenya
FounderPaul Nthenge Mackenzie
Origin2003
Defunct2019 (Mackenzie's claim)
2023 (police claim)
Official websitegoodnewsintlministries.blogspot.com

The Good News International Ministries (GNIM), commonly known toponymically as the Malindi cult (and previously as Servant PN Mackenzie Ministries), is a controversial religious group based in Shakahola, Magarini sub-county, Kilifi County, Kenya that was jointly founded by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie (also spelt Makenzi) and his wife in 2003. The group attracted international attention in April 2023, when it was revealed that Mackenzie had instructed members to starve themselves en masse to "meet Jesus." According to the church's website, and news media reports, they purport to be followers of the End-Time Message of William Branham.

After founding the GNIM in 2003, Mackenzie accumulated a large following, largely due to successfully convincing his followers that he could speak directly to God. The cult is adamantly anti-Western, with amenities such as healthcare, education, and sports being dismissed as "evils of western life," and with Mackenzie condemning the United States, the United Nations, and the Catholic Church as "tools of Satan." The group also devotes much of its teachings to the end times.

Beginning in the late 2010s, Mackenzie's church began to receive a renewed wave of scrutiny regarding the internal practices of the organization. In 2017, Mackenzie and his wife faced several charges relating to the church. He was chastised for inciting students to abandon their education after denouncing it as "ungodly," as well as radicalizing and denying medical care to said children afterwards; several children died as a result and, in 2017, 93 children were rescued by government authorities from the cult. After another arrest in 2019, he departed Malindi and headed to the Shakahola forest. In 2023, after another arrest the prior month in relation to the deaths of several children, he was again arrested for allegedly inciting his followers to starve themselves to "meet Jesus," resulting in the deaths of at least 90 people.

History

Good News International Ministries was founded in 2003 by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his wife, Joyce Mwikamba, as a small church. Before the founding, Mackenzie worked as a taxi driver in Nairobi from 1997 to 2003, during which he was charged four times for his sermons, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. When the church began to prosper, the duo moved to Migingo Village in Malindi. Mackenzie was able to amass a large cult following, largely via convincing his congregation that he could personally communicate with God.

In 2016, according to unconfirmed reports, a member of the group sold their property on the island of Lamu to Mackenzie for 20 million KSh. The preacher allegedly used this money to purchase property in the cities of Mombasa and Malindi, two vehicles, and to fund a television station to broadcast his message. The move by his follower convinced several other members to follow suit, selling their properties and giving money to the church.

In 2017, Mackenzie and Mwikamba were charged with promoting radicalization, as well as denying children access to health care and education and running an unauthorized school and television station; the latter precipitated the closure of the television station the following year by the Kenyan Film Classification Board. Several children died as a result of the lack of health care, and in 2017, government authorities rescued 93 children from Mackenzie's church. In 2018, he was criticised by community leaders including the then-Malindi MP, Aisha Jumwa and other activists for inciting children to drop out of school, often without parental consent. They were released after investigating officers found them innocent.

In 2019, Mackenzie was arrested for inciting the public against registration for Huduma Namba by likening it to the Number of the Beast. He was also accused of brainwashing and abducting children to join his cult. Mackenzie was supported during his trial by a number of churches and ministers, including Jesus Christians and other followers of William Branham's teachings. He was acquitted and set free.

It was after this incident that he closed his church in Migingo and moved to a remote commune in Shakahola.

Teachings

According to the group's website, and news media reports, they purport to be followers of the End Time Message of William Branham, an informal global network of churches that emerged from Oneness Pentecostalism. Investigators uncovered booklets of Branham's teachings at the commune which were pictured in a news broadcast. Mackenzie's YouTube channel contains videos promoting Serpent Seed teachings, versions of which are used by white supremacists to oppress non-white races and to prevent racial mixing. Although serpent seed is descended from Wesley Swift's Christian Identity Theology, not all adherents are aware of its racial origins and still implement the teaching in such a way that it prevents racial mixing and enforces racial segregation.

Paul Mackenzie's teachings have been described to have placed a huge emphasis on end time doomsday teachings and to be anti-western. Mackenzie rails against the "evils of western life," which includes medical services, education, food, sports, music, and "the uselessness of life." In a song titled "The Antichrist," he denounced the Catholic Church, the United States, and the United Nations as tools of Satan.

Mackenzie believed that the Kenyan biometric ID system called Huduma Namba was the Mark of the Beast, in alignment with the fundamentalist teachings of Branham. He echoed conspiracy theories to his followers insisting the end of days was imminent.

Mass-starvation incident

Shakahola massacre
DateApril 2023
LocationShakahola village, near Malindi, Kenya
CauseMass starvation
MotiveMackenzie's followers were instructed to go without food to meet Jesus
PerpetratorPaul Nthenge Mackenzie
Organized byGood News International Ministries
Deaths95
Non-fatal injuries36
Missing311
BurialShakahola forest

In early April 2023, a husband contacted police after his wife and daughter left Nairobi to join Mackenzie's remote commune in Kilifi County, and did not return. When police entered the community to investigate, they discovered emaciated people and shallow graves. 15 members of the group were rescued by police; they stated that they had been ordered to starve themselves to death to "meet Jesus". The 15 followers were in poor condition; four died before they reached a hospital.

Over the following three weeks, police searched the 800-acre commune, finding more shallow graves and additional survivors who were starving to death. The first bodies recovered from the graves were mostly children. One of the graves is believed by police to contain the bodies of five members of the same family – three children and their parents. One of the graves had up to six people inside it. Some of the bodies were not buried. Authorities also discovered a number of other emaciated individuals, including one who had been buried alive for three days, and was later taken to a hospital for treatment. Local authorities began requesting assistance from other jurisdictions to help with efforts at the commune. Authorities believed that an unknown number of missing people were still hiding in the forest on the commune and evading authorities while continuing to fast. Authorities reported that members of the commune were actively trying to hinder their efforts to find survivors.

According to testimonies to police, Mackenzie told his followers "the fast would count only if they gathered together, and offered them his farm as a fasting venue. They were not to mingle with anyone from the ‘outside’ world if they wanted to go to heaven and were to destroy all documents given by the government, including national IDs and birth certificates."

95 deaths have been reported as of April 26, 2023, including eight who were rescued but later died. The Kenyan Red Cross reported on April 26 that 311 individuals, including 150 minors, are missing. As of April 24, 36 emaciated survivors have been rescued.

Mackenzie and fourteen other members of the cult were arrested by authorities and are being held in police custody.

On April 25, search teams had to stop digging for bodies until autopsies were completed on the first 90 bodies that were found because the Malindi Sub-County Hospital's morgue was running out of space to store the bodies.

Reactions

Kenyan President William Ruto said "Mackenzie's teachings were contrary to any authentic religion."

Kenyan Interior Ministry Kithure Kindiki said, "This horrendous blight on our conscience must lead not only to the most severe punishment of the perpetrator(s) of the atrocity on so many innocent souls, but tighter regulation (including self-regulation) of every church, mosque, temple or synagogue going forward."

Massimo Introvigne from the Center for Studies on New Religions said, "Mackenzie may be or not be guilty of manslaughter or homicide by preaching fasting to death." He went on to say that the groups who supported Mackenzie and protested his arrest in 2019 with arguments of religious liberty should not be held responsible or have their religious liberties curtailed.

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-04-27 02:38 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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