Cult Leader Sentenced To 200 Years For Mass Murder

A Kenyan doomsday cult leader was sentenced Friday to 200 years in prison for the murders of 191 people after ordering followers to starve themselves to meet Jesus.

Pastor Paul Mackenzie was sentenced by Kenya’s High Court in the coastal city of Mombasa after being convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult, according to the Associated Press. He received two consecutive 100-year terms: one for murders by starvation and another for murders by direct homicide.

Justice Diana Kavedza said Mackenzie, the leader of the Good News International Church, bore the “primary criminal culpability” for leading his followers into an isolated area and directing them to starve themselves to death, the outlet reported.

“The sentence is appropriate and just, to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law,” the judge added.

The judge, however, rejected the prosecution’s request for the death penalty. Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987, according to the BBC.

Twenty-eight others were convicted and sentenced alongside Mackenzie, including guards who enforced his fasting orders and gravediggers who helped conceal the mass graves. Only one defendant reportedly admitted to the crimes and pleaded for mercy.

The court convicted all 29 defendants in October.

Mackenzie also faces separate terrorism and manslaughter charges related to more than 200 additional victims, as well as child abuse and torture charges in two other courts.

The case stems from the 2023 Shakahola forest massacre. Authorities uncovered more than 400 bodies buried in shallow graves across the 800-acre Chakama Ranch in coastal Kilifi County. Mackenzie’s followers had been living in mud huts on the property, isolated from surrounding communities and authorities, the AP reported. More than 60 bodies were identified and reburied by relatives, while many others remain unidentified. 

According to the BBC, Mackenzie founded Good News International Church, also known as Good News International Ministries, in 2003, attracting thousands of followers across Kenya over the next 16 years. He also operated a television station to broadcast his sermons.

The church closed in 2019. Mackenzie then relocated to Shakahola Forest and urged followers to join him. His followers believed he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece,” Kavedza said when delivering her verdict last month.

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