A Kenyan cult leader who preached that followers could meet Jesus by starving themselves to death, causing hundreds of deaths including those of children, has been found guilty. The verdict came three years after the case came to light.
Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache of the Mombasa High Court on the 19th convicted Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 28 accomplices on charges of murdering 191 people, including 190 children and one adult, according to Britain's BBC and the local daily Kenya Times.
Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 on charges of driving followers of his Good News International Church to mass starvation in the eastern coastal city of Malindi by telling them they had to starve to death to meet Jesus.
Police searches of the Shakahola forest near the church uncovered more than 400 bodies by the following year, in a case known as the Shakahola forest massacre that shocked Kenya and the wider world.
Mackenzie was charged with the murders of the 191 victims whose identities have been confirmed. He was accused of instructing parents who followed him to starve their children until they died. He faces additional charges related to 52 more bodies found in January this year.
Prosecutors said their investigation found that Mackenzie imposed what he called a hierarchy of death, under which children were to die first, followed by adolescents, women and men. Most of the children died of starvation, though some died of suffocation or physical injuries, prosecutors said.
Mackenzie and his accomplices denied the charges, but the court said all the charges had been proven and that criminal responsibility had been established.
Mackenzie, who founded his church in 2003, was arrested in 2017 but acquitted, and was arrested again in 2019 over the deaths of two children before being released on bail.
A lawyer for Mackenzie said the verdict was difficult to understand and that the defense would appeal. The clients were shocked and disappointed, the lawyer said, adding there was confidence the verdict would be overturned on appeal.
Sentencing is scheduled for the 6th of next month.