Case file · Folklore / legend
The Shakahola Forest deaths
In April 2023 police began exhuming bodies in the Shakahola Forest, Kilifi County, where followers of the pastor Paul Mackenzie had starved themselves, and their children, to 'meet Jesus' before the end of the world.
2023 CE · -3.03, 39.80 · status: official
The account
More than 400 bodies were recovered from mass graves on Mackenzie's ranch, and hundreds more people were reported missing. Some victims showed signs of strangulation or blows. Mackenzie of the Good News International Church was charged with murder and terrorism, and a Kenyan Senate inquiry examined how warnings had been missed. The point is approximate.
The sceptical view
An apocalyptic prophecy with documented deadly results, not an unexplained event.