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The Mombasa High Court sentenced Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison on Friday after determining that the cult leader bore primary criminal culpability for directing his followers to fast to death in a remote forest location. Justice Diana Kavedza rejected Mackenzie’s claims that the deaths were voluntary and noted that guards had enforced the fasting orders with violence against those who resisted or tried to escape. Prosecutors had argued for the death penalty citing his lack of remorse but the court imposed the lengthy term instead as Kenya has carried out no executions since 1987 according to multiple news reports. Mackenzie and 28 co-accused had all pleaded not guilty prior to the October conviction.
Kenyan investigators recovered 429 bodies from the forest between April and July 2023 of which 191 were the subject of the murder charges according to the Kenya News Agency. Al Jazeera reported that Mackenzie a former taxi driver founded the Good News International Church in 2003 in the coastal town of Malindi before shifting to increasingly apocalyptic teachings that banned education and modern medicine as satanic. The cult’s hierarchy required children to fast first followed by women and men with burials referred to as weddings to celebrate union with Jesus. Police figures placed the broader death toll linked to the group at 429 including later discoveries of additional graves.
The crimes came to light in 2023 when authorities discovered the mass graves at the cult’s 800-acre ranch in Shakahola forest in Kilifi County following a raid that drew global attention. Post-mortem results showed starvation as the cause of death for most victims while others died from suffocation strangulation or head injuries according to court evidence. A former head of security for the cult entered a plea deal and testified for the prosecution detailing how resisters were beaten or forced. The judge rejected the defense arguments after hearing from more than 120 witnesses during the trial.
Reuters reported that Stephen Mwiti whose wife and six children died in the forest told the news agency that Mackenzie had predicted the world would end on April 15 and instructed followers to starve themselves ahead of that date. One victim’s relative told The Independent that the family could breathe a sigh of relief following the conviction. Mackenzie had been arrested on related charges in 2017 and again in 2019 but continued to attract followers from across Kenya with promises that fasting would allow them to meet Jesus before the world ended. The court designated his church an organized criminal group.
Mackenzie also faces additional separate charges for terrorism radicalisation and denying children education according to Kenyan court records. AP News noted that the ranch’s isolation from local communities and authorities allowed the activities to continue undetected for years until the exhumations began in April 2023. Some followers who escaped the initial operation reportedly continued similar practices leading to further body discoveries in 2025 as documented by police. Only 26 of the bodies have been identified according to officials complicating efforts to notify all affected families.
