Good News International Ministries

The Good News International Ministries (GNIM), or Good News International Church, commonly referred to as the Shakahola cult and previously referred to as the Servant P. N. Mackenzie Ministries, is a new religious movement which was based in Shakahola, Kilifi County, Kenya, and was founded by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his first wife in 2003. GNIM attracted international attention in April 2023 when it was revealed that Mackenzie had allegedly instructed members to starve themselves en masse to "meet Jesus," which has resulted in the deaths of over 400 people. The group, widely described as a cult, is adamantly anti-Western, with amenities such as health care, 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. They are purportedly followers of the End-Time Message of William Branham. Homicide detectives working on the case alleged the group was radicalized by Branham's teachings, leading to their deaths. The group has been described as a doomsday cult. Mackenzie founded the GNIM in 2003 and accumulated a sizable following, largely due to convincing his followers that he could speak directly with God. 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 the children afterwards; several children died as a result and, in 2017, 93 children were rescued by government authorities from the group. After another arrest in 2019, he departed Malindi and headed to the Shakahola forest, where the mass starvation occurred in 2023. MacKenzie did not join his followers in the mass starvation, in fact, a dietary menu was found on the wall in one of the special houses in the forest believed to be his resting room.