Kenyan cult leader sentenced to 200 years for starving hundreds of followers to death

A Kenyan cult leader who forced followers to starve themselves to death has been sentenced to 200 years in prison — more than three years after the so-called Shakahola Forest Massacre came to light.

Judge Diana Kavedja Mochache of the Mombasa High Court handed down the sentence to Paul Nthenge Mackenzie on Friday (local time).

Mackenzie was convicted on Oct. 19 of causing the deaths of 191 people — 190 children and one adult — by teaching members of his Good News International Church that fasting would allow them to meet Jesus in heaven.

The court imposed 100 years for deaths caused through starvation and a further 100 years for direct acts of killing.

The case came to light in April 2023, when a mass burial site was discovered in the Shakahola Forest near the coastal town of Malindi in eastern Kenya. Subsequent searches recovered a total of 448 bodies, many of them children.

Prosecutors said Mackenzie had instructed followers to starve themselves and their children to death before the apocalypse so they could reach heaven. The investigation also found he had imposed a so-called "hierarchy of death," dictating that children should die first, followed by teenagers, women and then men.

Autopsies showed that most victims died of starvation, though some died from suffocation, neck compression or head trauma. The court found that Mackenzie and his accomplices used religious teachings and a system of organized control to enforce the fasting.

Mackenzie denied forcing followers to fast, but the court rejected his defense. A total of 29 defendants, including Mackenzie, were convicted on 191 counts of murder on Oct. 19.

Mackenzie is also facing trial in a separate mass-death case. Kenyan authorities this year filed additional charges against him and others in connection with 52 more bodies found in an area about 30 kilometers from Shakahola last year.

Mackenzie founded the Good News International Church in 2003 and has preached apocalyptic doctrine ever since. He was arrested in 2017 on charges related to radicalization but was later acquitted, and was arrested again in 2019 in connection with the deaths of two children before being released on bail.