Paul Mackenzie

Paul Nthenge Mackenzie was the pastor of the Good News International Church in Kenya, otherwise known as the "Malindi Cult" — a "Message" church based upon the teachings of William Branham.  Mackenzie "brainwashed" his converts[1] using William Branham's End of Days theology, and convinced them that starvation could hasten their escape from this life to be with Jesus.  As the number of bodies increased, the tragedy became known as the Shakahola Massacre.  Kenya's President William Ruto declared the "Message" sect to be terrorism that should be eradicated.[2] Mackenzie founded his Good News International Church and based his theology "on the doomsday teachings of William Branham."[3]

Mackenzie brainwashed his converts using William Branham’s End of Days Theology, and convinced them that starvation could hasten their escape from this life to be with Jesus[4]
- Homicide Detectives in Kenya

As the investigation progressed, it quickly shifted from mass suicide to terrorism, torture, and organ harvesting.  A network of people and organizations were involved, and officials in Kenya arrested and seized assets of criminals ranging from high-profile ministers[5] to Branhamite "home churches".[6]

Investigators at the Shakahola Forest Massacre confirmed that some of the victims in the mass graves were missing organs, and an investigation into an illegal network of organ harvesting for the black market was launched. Officials found evidence of small girls being sexually abused in the cult prior to their deaths.  Fears that their organs were harvested after the sexual abuse was confirmed by Interior Cabinet Secretary Professor Kitura Kendiki.[7]

'Post-mortem reports have established missing organs in some of the bodies of the victims so far exhumed,'[8]  
- Chief Inspector Martin Munene

Mackenzie was radicalized with the Latter Rain version of William Branham's "Message" — the same version that attracted Jim Jones of Peoples Temple who convinced over 900 followers to commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.[9]  The Latter Rain had a fundamental doctrine of fasting to achieve "atomic power" as described in Franklin Hall's book, Atomic Power With God through Fasting and Prayer.  According to the doctrinal teaching, converts were instructed to fast for forty days.

It can only be the beginning of a new age for good if the power of the Spirit is developed to a high degree in many, by the most powerful agent known to man, FASTING AND PRAYER.  A twenty-one, or forty day Prayer and Fast period will most assuredly hasten the Christian to such a great and eep experience with God that twenty-one days would be equal to twenty-one years.  Forty days equal to forty years (Experience shows that the forty day period gives far greater results than a shorter time)
- Franklin Hall, Atomic Power With God Through Fasting and Prayer

This fasting, however, presented problems.  As time went on, many people were becoming very ill.  Some were losing their minds.  In later years, as the fasting doctrine became frowned upon by a majority of leaders and converts in the Latter Rain Movement, William Branham partially abandoned the doctrine.

In one revival in 1961, Branham admitted that people were going insane through the fasting doctrine.  He mentioned the book, though he did not mention its name or the fact that he himself toured with Franklin Hall to promote the fasting doctrine in earlier years.  Rather than fully abandon the doctrine, however, Branham claimed that there was a fast that "God puts on you", and during that type of fast, one does not hunger.

I've had people, after a certain book was wrote and put out about fasting, people come to my line: women, pregnant and things like that, come in my line, lose their, lose their mind, come—go into insane institutions from that. See? 'Course you can't do that. Just because somebody else done it, that's no sign that you're supposed to do it. Let God lead you to do what you're doing. If you're led to, when you get hungry, it's time to eat. When God puts a fast on you, you don't get hungry. It's God dealing with you. 'Jesus was afterwards an hungered.' See? After His fast was over, He hungered. But…So however, just let that…You just judge that by yourself, I'm…Your pastor is more apt—a better position to tell you those things. If I said wrong, or…Forgive me.[10]
- William Branham, 1961, January 25. Why? (61-0125). 

This is the type of fast that radicalized Paul Mackenzie's Malindi cult sect.  Mackenzie taught his converts to believe that they should fast and pray for several days, leading several people to their deaths through hunger.  Like the Latter Rain version of the doctrine, Mackenzie believed that the fast would hasten the convert's passage into heaven by cleansing their body of the "evil".

As a result, many people in Mackenzie's church began to fast until their death.

In the cult, people were allegedly encouraged to fast to death to make it to heaven. The controversial Malindi preacher Paul Mackenzie of Good News International has been preaching to his followers to fast and pray for several days and eventually, a number of them have died due to hunger.[11]
- The Star (Kenya)

According to detectives in the homicide unit in Kenya, the cult began forming mass graves for victims who starved themselves to death under Mackenzie's instructions.  On April 19, 2023, detectives found one person buried alive in a grave, and an informant told them there were other graves containing as many as 31 bodies.[12]  Police found 15 emaciated parishioners on church grounds, four of which died after the group was taken to the hospital.[13]  Twelve shallow graves were discovered in Kilifi County, [14] and the investigation continued to discover several more.  110 have been confirmed dead and as many as 360 are missing.[15]

Police officials said investigators received a tip that dozens of people were starving to death after their pastor told them it was a way to meet Jesus. Most of the followers could not walk or talk when officers found them.The pastor of Good News International Church, Paul Makenzi, surrendered Friday to police in the town of Malindi.[16]
- CBS News

Mackenzie used William Branham's doomsday theology to manipulate the minds of his victims, teaching Branham's end-time prophecies as a basis for the killing of men, women, and children of his sect. Among the transcripts of William Branham's sermons found among the cult was a sermon translated in Swahili, "Unyakuo". This is William Branham's sermon, "The Rapture", preached in December of 1965 shortly before his death. In this sermon, William Branham makes several statements describing his thoughts on being a martyr. In one statement, Branham said that Jesus was the "keystone" between the Old and New Testament by dying first, then rapture.[17] In other statements, Branham warns his listeners that "no one wants to die", but that some among them would be caught unexpectedly with the "Mark of the Beast",[18] and then focused his attention on why the people had to "die in martyrdom".[19]

The Malindi Cult, led by Mackenzie, claims to follow the End Time Message of William Branham, an American Christian minister and faith healer. Branham's teachings revolve around end-time prophecies and are considered controversial by many mainstream Christian denominations. {...} According to the group's website, they claim to be members of the End Time Message of William Branham. Investigators uncovered a library of Branham's teachings at the commune, which were pictured in a news broadcast.[20]
- Mandy News

Throughout his sermons that are available on YouTube, Paul Mackenzie taught William Branham's Serpent Seed doctrine,[21] which was derived from Wesley A. Swift's Christian Identity Doctrine used to radicalize white supremacists of the 1960s and beyond.[22]  William Branham used this theology to promote Swift's (and other white supremacists' vision of) impending race war.[23]  Branham covertly spread the doctrine, however, removing the racial elements of Swift's theology when rebranding it as "Serpent's Seed".  Branham claimed that the "evil bloodline" flowed through Ham,[24] which many Christians of the era believed to be the origin of the black race, so the racial implications went almost unnoticed.  Later, Branham followed up with his "hybreeding" doctrine, which combined with "Serpent's Seed" was the fullness of Swift's Christian Identity doctrine.  As a result, many of Branham's followers claim not to be racist yet will not permit people with black skin to have children with whites — covert racism.  Apparently, Mackenzie was either covertly or unknowingly spreading racism in Kenya.

Paul Mackenzie's sermons were structured according to William Branham's pattern of apocalyptic teaching while denouncing the Catholic Church, government systems, medical professionals and medicine, and the education system[25] — just as Branham did in the 1950s and 1960s — explaining how Mackenzie became radicalized.  Similar to the radicalization of Jim Jones of Peoples Temple[26] and Paul Shaefer of Colonia Dignidad,[27] Paul Mackenzie learned this doctrinal teaching from William Branham.  Transcripts of "The Spoken Word" (Branham's recorded sermons) were identified during the investigation,[28][29] books published by Spoken Word Publications in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and distributed by the cult headquarters,[30] Voice of God Recordings in Jeffersonville, Indiana.