Prosecutors said more than 400 witnesses will testify over the next four days.
Mr Yamina said the case was unique in Kenya and the suspects would be charged under laws relating to suicide pacts.
When this incident broke out last year, Kenyans were shocked and horrified at the thought of people willingly starving to death. It became known as the “Shakahola Forest Massacre.”
Mr. MacKenzie reportedly told his followers that if they stopped eating, they would get to heaven faster.
Mr. MacKenzie also faces two other trials, one on terrorism charges that began in July and the other on child abuse charges. Child abuse includes torturing, assaulting, abusing and violating the child's right to education. Mr. MacKenzie denies the child abuse charges.
Survivors say that under the bizarre orders written by Mr. MacKenzie, children were to starve to death first, then unmarried women, then men, and finally church leaders.
Mr. MacKenzie said he founded Good News International Church in 2003, but it closed in 2019.
He encouraged his followers to prepare for the end of the world by moving to the Shakahola Forest to “meet Jesus.”
Pastor MacKenzie reportedly owns 800 acres of land in a remote forest with no cell phone coverage.
The forest was divided into several districts and given Biblical names such as Judea, Bethlehem, and Nazareth.
