[4] 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," resulting in the deaths of over 400 people.

[11] Beginning in the late 2010s, Mackenzie's church began to receive a renewed wave of scrutiny regarding the internal practices of the organization.

Mackenzie did not join his followers in the mass starvation; a dietary menu was found on the wall in one of the special houses in the forest believed to be his resting room.

[20] Before the founding, Mackenzie worked as a taxi driver in Nairobi from 1997 to 2003, during which he was charged four times for his sermons but was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The preacher allegedly used this money to purchase property in the cities of Mombasa and Malindi as well as two vehicles, and to fund a television station to broadcast his message.

[22] In 2017, Mackenzie and his second wife, Joyce Mwikamba (1981–2018),[23] were charged with promoting radicalization, but later declared innocent,[24] as well as denying children access to health care and education and running an unauthorized school and television station; the latter precipitated the closure of the television station the following year by the Kenya Film Classification Board.

[9] In 2018, he was criticised by community leaders including the then-Malindi MP, Aisha Jumwa,[28] and other activists[29][30] for inciting children to drop out of school, often without parental consent.

[38] According to the group's website and news media reports, GNIM has been influenced by the End-Time Message of William Branham, an informal global network of churches that emerged from Oneness Pentecostalism.

[43] In the early weeks of April 2023, a man contacted the police after his wife and daughter left Nairobi to join Mackenzie's remote commune in Kilifi County and did not return.

"[47] On 26 May, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said that Mackenzie hired criminals armed with crude weapons to kill followers who changed their minds about fasting and wanted out, as well as those who took too long to die.

[55][56][57][58] On 25 May, local news outlet K24TV noted that "The exact number of people who perished in the massacre might never be known following reports that there are instances where bodies were plunged in random deep pit latrines scattered in the expansive Chakama ranch where cult leader Paul Mackenzie led an unknown number of his followers.

"[59] On September 18 The Nation reported that a total of 429 bodies had been exhumed from Shakahola Forest, and that "The latest data indicates that 214 died from starvation, 39 from asphyxia, 14 from head injury, while 115 remain unascertained, and others from other causes.

[62] "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," detectives from the homicide unit said.

[15][16][66] However, on 10 May, Kindiki refuted these assertions as "politicization of the probe into the massacre," and advised the public to "treat it [allegedly missing body parts] as rumours.

Roseline Odede, chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, criticized the attempted suicide charges, saying that "Charging the survivors with attempted suicide is inappropriate and will re-traumatize the survivors at a time when they most desperately require empathy, intense psycho-social assistance, rehabilitation, and community support."

According to the Citizen Digital news service, "The prosecution made an application to have them remanded in prison because the rescue centre can no longer hold them.

In his ruling, Shanzu Senior Principal Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda said the state had failed to prove why Maweu should continue being held with the other accused persons.

[73] In January 2024, the court granted another fourteen days of detention for Mackenzie and several alleged accomplices, but warned that if he had not been charged by that time he could be released.

Magistrate Shikanda noted that Mackenzie had been in custody for 117 days, one of the longest detentions without charge in Kenyan history.

[42] Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said, "This horrendous blight on our conscience must lead not only to the most severe punishment of the perpetrator(s) of the atrocity on so many innocent souls, but tighter regulation (including self-regulation) of every church, mosque, temple or synagogue going forward.

Authorities said Ezekiel Odero, pastor of New Life Prayer Centre and Church in Mavueni, Kilifi County, would soon face criminal charges relating to the mass killing of his own followers.

[82] As of May 19, 2023 the Registrar of Societies in Kenya had de-registered Good News International Ministries as part of government's crackdown on unscrupulous churches.