200 Years for 191 Dead: Kenya Jails Starvation Cult Leader Paul Mackenzie
November 7, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A Kenyan court sentenced Paul Mackenzie to 200 years on November 6, 2026, after convicting him of 191 murders at a Shakahola forest camp where he ordered followers to fast to death. His 28 co-accused received terms of up to 160 years.
200 years. That is the sentence Kenya's High Court handed Paul Mackenzie on November 6, 2026, for the murders of 191 people, 190 of them children, at a forest settlement on the country's coast.
Justice Diana Kavedza of the High Court in Mombasa ordered two consecutive 100-year blocks: 100 years covering 191 starvation murders, another 100 years for eight counts of direct homicide. Each block runs concurrently within itself, then the two blocks stack into an aggregate of 200 years, Kenyans.co.ke reported.
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, founded Good News International Ministries in 2003 and ran a television station to spread his sermons. Authorities shut the church down in 2019, the Daily Wire reported. He moved to Shakahola forest in Kilifi County and urged followers to join him. Those who did settled in mud huts on an 800-acre property he divided into areas with biblical names.
He told followers to fast to death to meet Jesus before the world ended. He forbade members from sending their children to school or seeking hospital treatment, describing both as satanic, the Guardian reported. The court found the fasting was not voluntary. Guards enforced his orders through a system of religious indoctrination, intimidation and violence, Kenyans.co.ke reported. In some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.
Police began exhuming mass graves after a tipoff in 2023. Investigators recovered more than 400 bodies from shallow graves and latrines across the site; many were severely decomposed and only 26 could be identified, the Guardian reported. The murder trial covered 191 of those deaths. Investigations into more than 200 further deaths continue.
Prosecutors asked for the death penalty. Justice Kavedza declined, reasoning that keeping Mackenzie alive preserved the possibility of locating the remains of missing children. Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987, the Daily Wire reported, citing the BBC. The judge said the 200-year term was designed to achieve retribution, denunciation and deterrence, and to send "an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law."
Twenty-eight co-accused were sentenced alongside Mackenzie, including guards who enforced his fasting orders and gravediggers who helped conceal the mass graves. Their terms range from 10 to 160 years based on individual involvement, Kenyans.co.ke reported. All co-accused except Mackenzie will be assessed for a deradicalisation programme run by Kenya's National Counter Terrorism Centre; those certified as ready may apply for sentence review after serving one-third or half of their custodial term. No equivalent provision was stated for Mackenzie.
Mackenzie still faces separate terrorism charges over 52 deaths in Kwa Binzaro village, about 18 miles from Shakahola, allegedly directed while he was in detention, the Guardian reported. He has pleaded not guilty. Child abuse and torture charges in two other courts are also pending.
Authorities had Mackenzie on their radar since 2017, when police searched his premises. More than 400 bodies followed.
Published November 7, 2026 · Frisian News