Kenyan cult leader jailed 200 years for murdering 190 children
By Tolulope Oke
A Kenyan court has sentenced controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, including 190 children, whom he ordered to starve to death to meet Jesus.
Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, received the sentence on Friday at the High Court in Mombasa following his conviction over the mass killings in Kenya’s Shakahola forest.
Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache sentenced the self-proclaimed pastor to 100 years for murder by starvation and another 100 years for direct homicide, with the prison terms to run consecutively.
The judge held that Mackenzie bore primary responsibility for the deaths, having directed his followers to observe prolonged fasting as a means of reaching heaven.
She described the killings as deliberate and calculated, noting that the victims included children who were denied food under the cult’s religious teachings.
“The sentence is appropriate and just, to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law,” the judge said.
Prosecutors had requested the death penalty, arguing that the scale and circumstances of the killings justified the harshest punishment available.
However, the court declined to impose capital punishment, citing the possibility of rehabilitation.
Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987.
Mackenzie was convicted alongside 28 followers on October 19 after the court found them guilty of participating in an organised system of starvation and killings.
Among those convicted were guards accused of enforcing the fasting directives and individuals who assisted in burying victims in mass graves.
The accomplices received varying prison sentences, with some handed terms of up to 160 years.
The case dates back to April 2023, when Kenyan authorities began discovering bodies buried in shallow graves in Shakahola forest, near the coastal town of Malindi.
Investigators subsequently recovered more than 400 bodies, exposing one of the deadliest cult-related tragedies in recent history.
Although the latest convictions concern 191 victims, investigations revealed that hundreds of other people had died in the forest.
Post-mortem examinations established that most victims died from starvation, while others suffered fatal injuries from suffocation, strangulation and physical violence.
The court found that 183 victims died from starvation, while eight were killed through direct acts of violence.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Mackenzie instructed followers to abandon ordinary life and fast until death, promising that they would meet Jesus.
Those who resisted the directives were allegedly subjected to beatings and other forms of punishment.
The deaths sparked widespread outrage across Kenya and raised serious questions about how the cult operated for years without effective intervention by security agencies.
Investigations by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights revealed that local officials and law enforcement personnel had repeatedly failed to act on warnings about the group’s activities.
One bereaved relative, Francis Wanje, who lost eight family members, including two grandchildren, expressed hope that the court would impose a punishment proportionate to the suffering caused.
Mackenzie and his co-accused had denied the allegations and maintained that nobody was forced to starve.
The former pastor also faces separate terrorism and manslaughter charges connected to other deaths, which he denies.
The convicted defendants have been granted 14 days to appeal the judgment.