A Kenyan Christian cult leader, Paul Mackenzie, has been convicted of the murder of 191 people, most of them children, following an organised system of forced fasting and abuse in Shakahola Forest.
Mackenzie and about 30 co-accused were found guilty on Monday by the Mombasa High Court in one of Kenya’s most significant criminal cases involving the deaths of followers of a religious group.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said the court found that the deaths resulted from an organised system in which religious teachings and a strict hierarchy were used to direct and enforce deadly fasting among Mackenzie’s followers, according to CNN.
“Fasting was implemented sequentially, beginning with children, while guards controlled movement and prevented followers from escaping,” the prosecution said in a statement.
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The court also heard that Mackenzie discouraged his followers from accessing modern medicine and formal education.
Mackenzie, who ran the Good News International Church, was accused of instructing followers to starve themselves and their children to death in the belief that they would reach heaven and meet Jesus.
He and his co-accused were charged in 2024 after authorities uncovered mass graves in Shakahola Forest, eastern Kenya, where investigators alleged the group had operated a death cult.
The exhumation exercise began in April 2023, and authorities have so far recovered 429 bodies. Further charges could follow as investigations continue.
Postmortem findings cited by High Court judge Diana Kavedza indicated that some victims died from suffocation, neck compression and head injuries, rather than starvation alone.
Mackenzie’s lawyer, Lawrence Obonyo, said the defence intended to appeal the conviction.
He said his client maintained that he had not forced anyone to fast and that the victims had acted voluntarily.
The case has drawn widespread attention in Kenya, prompting scrutiny of religious groups, the protection of children and the enforcement of laws against abuse carried out under the guise of religious practice.
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