Nairobi — Controversial televangelist Paul Mackenzie will remain in detention for at least forty-seven additional days following a court ruling allowing an application by the State to extend his incarceration.

Senior Principal Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda however ruled in a verdict delivered on Thursday that the detention, which he described as the longest pre-charge detention sanctioned by the court under the new constitutional dispensation, must not exceed forty-seven days.

Shikanda also ordered the National Secretary of Probation and Aftercare Services to present a social inquiry within thirty days even as he allowed an investigation into cases of alleged mistreatment of Mackenzie and his associates by prison authorities.

"The officers in charge of Shimo La Tewa, Kilifi and Malindi GK Prisons are hereby

ordered to grant access to the investigators herein at the said facilities for purposes of conducting further interviews and recording statements," he ordered.

The court however declined an application by the accused persons seeking to be assigned additional lawyers under the National Legal Aid Service citing sufficient legal representation.

Mackenzie was arrested in April after authorities uncovered cult deaths in Kilifi's Shakahola forest where he allegedly brainwashed followers to fast to death.

Authorities have exhumed 426 bodies from the vast forest bordering the Tsavo National Park with one of Mackenzie's co-accused dying while in detention after boycotting meals.