The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult and 29 of his associates have been charged with the murder of 191 children.
Paul McKenzie and his co-accused denied the charges against them before a court in the coastal city of Malindi.
One suspect was found mentally unfit to stand trial.
Paul McKenzie smiled in court when he appeared in January. Photo: Reuters
Prosecutors say McKenzie ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the end of the world.
It was kids Among more than 429 bodies They were found over months of exhumations across tens of thousands of acres of Shakahola Forest in coastal Kilifi County.
Followers of the Mackenzie Church of the Good News International lived in several isolated settlements on 800 acres within the forest.
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Officers stand near where the bodies are being exhumed. Photo: AP
Police carry the body of one of the victims. Photo: AP
McKenzie was arrested in April last year and has already been charged with terrorism-related offences, manslaughter and torture.
He was also convicted in December of producing and distributing films without a license and sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, told members of the sect that they could not send their children to school or go to the hospital when they were sick, describing such institutions as satanic, according to some of his followers.
His lawyer said he is cooperating with the investigation into the deaths.
The judge said the 30 defendants are scheduled to return to court on March 7 for a bail hearing.
