Controversial Kenyan preacher Paul Mackenzie has been found guilty of murder in connection with the Shakahola forest deaths, one of the worst cult tragedies in the country’s history.
Delivering judgment in Mombasa on Monday, High Court Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache convicted Mackenzie and 28 others on 191 separate murder charges. The victims included 190 children and one adult.
The court established that Mackenzie used his Good News International Church as a platform to run a doomsday sect in Kilifi County. Members were told to deny themselves and their children food and water, a process the prosecution described as a systematic enforcement of deadly fasting to prepare for heaven.
Testimony before the court showed that children were forced to fast first, while armed guards were stationed around the Shakahola settlement to stop families from leaving or seeking help. The prosecution said some victims also died from strangulation, suffocation and blunt force injuries after attempting to resist.
Mackenzie has been in custody since 2023, when police acted on intelligence and discovered mass graves in the remote forest. Since then, investigators have exhumed over 429 bodies. The 191 counts decided on Monday form the first batch of murder charges.
He had maintained that he did not compel anyone to starve and that his followers acted out of personal faith. The judge rejected that claim, stating there was clear evidence of coercion, control and an organized hierarchy used to implement his orders.
The court adjourned sentencing to November 6. Mackenzie and his co-accused are also facing separate cases bordering on terrorism and cruelty to children.
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