Kenyan Cult Leader Sentenced to 200 Years for Child Murders

A Kenyan court sentenced Paul Mackenzie to two hundred years in prison on Friday for the murder of one hundred ninety children and one adult in an infamous starvation cult.

Justice Diana Kavedza delivered the ruling at the Mombasa High Court, dividing the sentence equally between one hundred years for homicide and one hundred years for starvation offenses. Prosecutors presented evidence that Mackenzie instructed his followers in the Good News International Church to starve themselves and their children to death in the Shakahola Forest to reach heaven before the end of the world.

The investigation began in April 2023 when police rescued emaciated followers and uncovered mass graves near the coastal resort of Malindi, ultimately leading to the recovery of more than four hundred bodies. Twenty-eight co-accused accomplices received prison sentences ranging from ten to one hundred sixty years for their roles in enforcing fasts through threats, beatings, and confinement.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for the cult leader, but the judge declined, stating that capital punishment would fail to achieve deterrence since the convicts regarded death as a pathway to heaven. Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987. Defence lawyer Lawrence Obonyo announced plans to appeal the conviction and sentence.