Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie jailed 200 years for 191 starvation deaths
- A Kenyan court sentenced Paul Mackenzie to 200 years for ordering followers to starve to death.
- The victims included 190 children; more than 400 bodies have been exhumed from Shakahola forest.
- Twenty-eight co-defendants got terms of up to 160 years; all have 14 days to appeal.
A Kenyan court has sentenced doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, after he ordered his followers to starve themselves to death in the belief they would meet Jesus.
Justice Diana Mochache delivered the sentence on Friday, holding that Mackenzie carried the "primary criminal culpability" for directing the deadly fasts. The court gave him 100 years for homicide and another 100 years for offences linked to starvation. The two sets of sentences run one after the other, bringing his total term to 200 years.
Mackenzie was convicted in October alongside 28 co-defendants over the killings tied to his group in Shakahola forest, near Kenya's coast. The co-defendants, including guards said to have enforced the fasting orders and gravediggers who helped hide the bodies, received terms of up to 160 years.
What the court found
The judge described the killings as "cold and calculated" and said the sentence was meant to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities deserve the maximum penalty the law allows.
Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty, but the court declined, saying capital punishment would remove any possibility of rehabilitation. Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987.
Post-mortem examinations showed most victims died of starvation, while others suffered suffocation, strangulation or head injuries. PM News reported that 183 died from starvation and eight through direct violence.
Mackenzie founded Good News International Ministries in 2003 and drew attention for sermons calling education and healthcare evil. He later moved to Shakahola forest and urged followers to join him there.
He was arrested in 2023 after authorities began finding bodies in shallow graves. More than 400 bodies have since been exhumed from the area, making it one of the deadliest cult-related tragedies in recent memory.
What happens next
Mackenzie and his co-defendants denied the allegations, insisting nobody was forced to die. They have 14 days to appeal the judgment.
He still faces separate manslaughter and terrorism charges over other deaths, which he denies.
The case has raised hard questions in Kenya about how the group operated for years without effective action from security agencies. Investigations by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights found that local officials and law enforcement repeatedly failed to act on warnings about the group's activities.
