Kenyan cult leader appears in court over mass deaths

The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult has appeared in court, after more than 100 of his followers were found in mass graves last month.

Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, a former taxi driver, is accused of exhorting his followers to starve themselves to death to enter heaven before the world ended.

Another pastor, the televangelist Ezekiel Odero, is due in a separate court on charges including murder and aiding suicide.

On Monday, Kenya’s chief pathologist said the first autopsies of victims - nine children and a woman - indicated death by starvation, and in two cases, asphyxiation.