Kenyan court convicts starvation cult leader of murdering 191 people
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A court in Kenya has found starvation cult leader Paul Mackenzie and dozens of his associates guilty of murder over the deaths of 191 people – all but one of them children.
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The self-proclaimed pastor and his Good News International Church organised a Christian doomsday sect in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death, so they could go to heaven before the world ended and “meet Jesus”.
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Police arrested Mackenzie in 2023 after receiving a tip-off. After several weeks, authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola Forest near the coast in southeastern Kenya.
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Mackenzie, who was convicted along with 28 associates, insisted that he did not force the victims to starve, but that was dismissed by the court in Mombasa, where the verdict was announced on Monday.
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The defendants had pleaded not guilty and denied charges in other cases, including terrorism, radicalisation, and stopping children from attaining an education.
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The court said Mackenzie and others convicted in the case will be sentenced on November 6.
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More than 400 people died in the Shakahola tragedy, according to Kenyan authorities, making it one of the country’s deadliest cult-related disasters.
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Investigations uncovered mass graves and evidence of severe malnutrition, triggering nationwide scrutiny of religious extremism and the government’s failure to detect the group’s activities earlier.
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Since the bodies were discovered three years ago, there have been calls for the government to impose tougher regulations on religious organisations. It also emerged that Mackenzie was arrested twice in the past but then released.
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Prosecutors said Mackenzie had “initiated and directed” extreme fasting at his 800-acre (325-hectare) ranch in Shakahola Forest.
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They described a “structured hierarchy of death” under which children should die first, followed by teenagers, women, and then men.
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Family members of the victims who died in the forest came to hear the verdict at the Mombasa court.
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Francis Wanje lost eight family members, including two grandchildren, to the cult.
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“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,” the 62-year-old said.
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