Kenyan cult chief Paul Mackenzie sentenced to 200 years in jail for homicide of 190 youngsters

World

By Linda Ikeji
6 November 2026, 3:03 pm

A Kenyan court docket has sentenced cult chief Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in jail for the homicide of 190 youngsters and one grownup, who had been starved to demise on his orders and buried in a forest.

The High Court in Kenya’s coastal metropolis of Mombasa issued the sentence for Pastor Paul Mackenzie. He was convicted of murdering 190 youngsters and one grownup after he ordered his followers to starve themselves to demise to be able to meet Jesus.

Justice Diana Kavedza stated that Mackenzie, chief of the Good News International Church, bore the “primary criminal culpability” for relocating his followers to a distant location and ordering them to quick to demise.

Mackenzie was charged with the murders alongside 28 of his followers, together with guards who enforced his fasting directives and gravediggers who helped conceal the mass graves. All denied the fees, aside from one one who confessed and pleaded for leniency.

On Oct. 19, the court docket discovered all 29 of the accused responsible of the homicide of 191 folks.

In 2023, greater than 400 our bodies had been exhumed from shallow graves on the 800-acre Chakama Ranch in coastal Kilifi County, the place Mackenzie’s followers lived in mud huts, away from the scrutiny of native communities and authorities.

More than 60 our bodies had been positively recognized and reburied by their kin, whereas many others stay unidentified and unclaimed.

During the sentencing, Kavedza stated that 183 victims died of hunger, outlined as an entire lack of meals, and the opposite eight had been categorized as homicide by direct murder.

Kavedza stated the killings had been “cold and calculated” and dismissed claims by among the accused that the lack of their very own youngsters altered the truth that that they had participated within the killings of many different youngsters.

The justice stated that the perpetrators did not present regret and declared they had been able to quick to demise as nicely. During the sentencing, Mackenzie typically smiled and chatted along with his assistant pastor, Smart Mwakalama, who was sentenced to 160 years in jail.

The prosecution had argued for the demise penalty for Mackenzie and life imprisonment for his accomplices.

Mackenzie can also be dealing with terrorism, youngster abuse and torture prices in two different courts.

Francis Wanje, a 62-year-old instructor who misplaced two grandchildren, informed AFP he had hoped Mackenzie can be sentenced to demise to stop additional tragedies.

“Nothing can ease the pain,” stated Wanje, who blamed authorities for failing to behave swiftly. “I really have great (anger) towards the authorities. If they had taken action, we would not be here today.”

Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023, after a rights group tipped off authorities and a few followers had been rescued.

The subsequent police operation uncovered tons of of shallow graves, with a hovering demise toll that required a pause in excavations as native morgues ran out of house.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights stated in 2024 that the demise toll was 429. Some victims are nonetheless unidentified.

Mackenzie established the Good News International Church in 2003, and arrange branches in Nairobi and alongside Kenya’s coast that attracted 1000’s of devotees, although he claimed it closed in 2019.

Followers have informed their households and officers they believed Mackenzie when he preached that hunger was the trail to salvation.