Kenya Cult Leader Convicted of Killing 191 People, Including 190 Children

A court in Kenya has found Paul Mackenzie, the leader of a starvation cult, and about 30 others guilty of murder in the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children and one adult, The Guardian reported.

It ranks among the most serious cult-related disasters in recent world history. The verdict came after more than eight hours of deliberation at the high court in Mombasa.

Prosecutors said Mackenzie and his Good News International Church ran an apocalyptic Christian cult in which followers and their children were ordered to starve to death so they would reach heaven before the end of the world.

Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after police received a tip. Weeks later, authorities began finding bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola forest, near Kenya's southeastern coast. More than 400 bodies have been found in the forest so far, most badly decomposed, and only 26 have been identified.

In court, Mackenzie denied the murder charges, saying he did not force the victims to starve. The court rejected that argument. Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache said that in some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.

Mackenzie, wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, attended the hearing and sat beside his wife, one of the defendants. He was silent and stared straight ahead before the verdict was delivered.

Relatives of some of those who died in the forest gathered at the Mombasa high court to hear the ruling. Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight family members in the cult, including two grandchildren. Before the verdict, he said: "This has really been a heavy burden on our family, and it has caused serious psychological problems... I have been hoping for this special day."

The Shakahola tragedy has shocked Kenya since mass graves were discovered in the coastal forest more than three years ago. The case has raised questions about how Mackenzie was able to keep operating even though authorities had him in their sights from 2017, when police raided his premises. In 2019, authorities shut down Mackenzie's church and he moved to Shakahola forest, according to police.

The case has also prompted calls for tighter oversight of churches and religious organizations in a country where faith plays an important role in public life. Kenyan President William Ruto said in 2023 that government agencies should have prevented the deaths, and he accepted responsibility as president.

People familiar with the cult's operations said Mackenzie planned the mass starvation in three phases: first children, then women and young men, and finally the remaining men.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, banned followers from taking their children to school or to hospital when sick, describing such institutions as "of the devil," according to followers who spoke to Reuters in a 2023 article. Followers lived in temporary shelters of plastic sheeting and bamboo, divided by Mackenzie into areas named after places in the Bible such as Jerusalem and Judea.

The followers' plight began to emerge in mid-March 2023, when a local man told police that his brother and his brother's wife had let their children starve in the forest on Mackenzie's orders.

Mackenzie was arrested but released on bail, after which relatives said he moved up the end-of-the-world date he had told followers about. Police arrested him again in April 2023 and began a more systematic search of the forest, exhuming mass graves.

Mackenzie also faces other charges related to the deaths in the forest, including terrorism-related counts, which he denies. Prosecutors said that while in custody he also ordered the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, about 30 km from Shakahola. Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty in that case.