Cult leader Paul Mackenzie has been convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult after persuading followers that starving themselves to death would allow them to enter heaven.
Mackenzie led Kenya’s Good News International Church and told families that schools were “Satanic” while convincing his followers that the world was coming to an end.
A Kenyan court heard that some parents withheld food from their children and then watched as they slowly starved.
Mackenzie’s crimes came to light in 2023 after a tip to police exposed numerous shallow graves near his Christian doomsday sect in Kenya’s Shakahola Forest.
The deaths have since been described as one of the worst cult-related disasters in the world in recent history.
The former taxi driver was arrested with 30 other people after the graves were discovered. More than 400 bodies have been recovered, but severe decomposition meant that only 26 victims could be identified.
Mackenzie denied the murder allegations, arguing that he had not forced anyone to starve. The court rejected his defence.
The judgment delivered today concerned 191 deaths, while investigations into the remaining fatalities continue.
Paul Mackenzie (centre) has been convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult in one of the world’s worst cult-related disasters in recent history
Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after police received a tip-off; weeks later, authorities began finding bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest
More than 400 bodies have been recovered from Shakahola Forest
People familiar with the cult’s activities said Mackenzie organised the mass starvation in three stages: children first, followed by women and young men, and finally the remaining men.
He reportedly told families that following the plan would enable them to reach heaven before the end of the world.
Former followers have also said Mackenzie banned cult members from sending their children to school or taking sick relatives to hospital, describing both institutions as Satanic.
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Members lived in makeshift shelters built from polythene sheeting and thatch. Mackenzie divided the settlement into areas with biblical names, including Jerusalem and Judea.
Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache told the hearing, which continued for more than eight hours, that some children were separated from others and deprived of food as their parents watched.
Mackenzie appeared in court wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, seated beside his wife, who is also among the co-accused. He remained silent and stared into space before the verdict was delivered.
Relatives of some of the victims gathered at Mombasa High Court to hear the judgment.
Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight relatives, including two grandchildren, to the cult. Before the verdict, he said: “It has been really a heavy thing [for] us as a family, and it has really taken us very far in terms of psychological problems… I was hoping for this particular day.”
The scale of the tragedy began to emerge in mid-March 2023, when a local man told police that his brother and sister-in-law had starved their children to death in the forest on Mackenzie’s orders.
Mackenzie was arrested but released on bail, after which relatives say he brought forward the date on which he told his followers the world would end. Police arrested him again in April 2023 and started combing through the forest more systematically and began exhuming mass graves.
Mackenzie faces other charges over the forest deaths including terrorism-related ones, which he has denied.
Prosecutors say while he was in detention he also directed the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, which lies about 30 km (18 miles) from Shakahola. Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty in that case.
The Shakahola tragedy has gripped Kenya since the discovery of mass graves in the coastal forest more than three years ago.
It has raised questions over how Mackenzie was able to continue to operate despite having been on the radar of the authorities since 2017 when his premises were searched by police. In 2019, authorities shut down Mackenzie’s church and he relocated to the Shakahola Forest, police said.
The case has also led to calls for tougher oversight of churches and other religious organisations in a country where religious faith plays a prominent role in public life.
Kenyan President William Ruto said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths. He said he took responsibility as president.
