Starvation cult leader gets 200-year jail

Kenyan preacher convicted of killing 190 children and one adult

MOMBASA:

A Kenyan self-proclaimed preacher was sentenced to 200 years in prison on Friday for murdering 190 children and one adult in a starvation cult whose activities led to the discovery of hundreds of bodies in a coastal forest.

Paul Mackenzie, a former taxi driver who founded the Good News International Church, was convicted last month alongside 28 co-accused of murdering 191 people between January 2021 and September 2023. The court handed Mackenzie 100 years for homicide and another 100 years for starvation-related offences.

His accomplices, many of whom allowed their children to starve to death, received lengthy prison terms. Hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023 at the cult's base near Malindi, in the case known as the Shakahola Forest Massacre.

Mackenzie had urged followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus. "Children observed siblings drop dead... as their parents ate and drank," the judge said, describing the extreme suffering, beatings, strangulation and psychological trauma endured by young victims.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, but the judge said it would not deter convicts who regarded death as a pathway to heaven. Kenya retains capital punishment but has not carried out an execution since 1987. Mackenzie's lawyer said he would appeal.

The preacher also faces separate manslaughter and terrorism trials, in which he denies wrongdoing. The case has intensified calls for tighter regulation of religious organisations. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights estimated the death toll at 429 in 2024, with some victims still unidentified.