A Kenyan court has sentenced controversial religious leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for his role in the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, in one of the country’s deadliest cult-related massacres.
The sentence was delivered on Friday, November 6, 2026, by Justice Diana Kavedza at the High Court in Mombasa, following Mackenzie’s conviction for orchestrating the deaths through starvation and direct violence.
Prosecutors told the court that Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, instructed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death in order to reach heaven before what he claimed was the end of the world.
The court imposed 100 years’ imprisonment for murder by starvation and another 100 years for direct homicide.
Investigations revealed that followers were encouraged to abandon their homes and relocate to Shakahola Forest, where they were subjected to extreme fasting under the preacher’s apocalyptic religious teachings.
Those who resisted the instructions were allegedly beaten, threatened and prevented from escaping. Some victims were reportedly buried in shallow graves, while others were discovered in latrines.
Investigators also found evidence that some victims had been buried alive.
Twenty-eight accomplices were also convicted and handed prison sentences ranging from 10 to 160 years for their involvement in the killings. Mackenzie’s defence lawyer has indicated plans to appeal the judgment.
The tragedy first came to international attention in April 2023, when Kenyan authorities began exhuming bodies from mass graves in Shakahola Forest, near the coastal town of Malindi.
Authorities have since recovered 448 bodies from the forest, while Mackenzie faces separate proceedings over another 52 suspected deaths at a different location, bringing the wider suspected death toll to approximately 500.
The case has reignited debate in Kenya over religious extremism, the regulation of religious institutions and the responsibility of government agencies to intervene when religious leaders exploit vulnerable followers.
