Kenyan Court Sentences Cult Leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 Years for Starving 190 Children to Death

A Kenyan court has sentenced cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for his role in the deaths of 190 children who were allegedly starved to death on his orders in one of the country's worst mass killings.

Justice Diana Kavedza delivered the sentence on Friday, November 6, imposing 100 years for murder by starvation and another 100 years for direct homicide.

Prosecutors told the court that Mackenzie, who led an apocalyptic Christian sect in Shakahola Forest near Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, instructed followers to starve themselves and their children to death to reach heaven before the end of the world.

His accomplices allegedly enforced the instructions through threats and beatings. Victims' bodies were later discovered in shallow graves, latrines and other locations across the forest. Some were reportedly buried alive.

Mackenzie denied the murder charges, arguing that he did not force anyone to starve. However, the court rejected his defence.

The case came to public attention in April 2023 when police began discovering bodies in Shakahola Forest, near the coastal town of Malindi.

Although the trial covered the deaths of 190 children and one adult, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says 448 bodies were eventually recovered from the forest.

Mackenzie is also facing a separate case involving 52 people found dead at another location, about 30 kilometres away. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Stephen Mwiti, a father who lost six children in the tragedy, said his wife had taken the children to the forest, where they were allegedly starved to death.

He questioned the decision to subject children to the practice, saying their deaths had left his family devastated.

The conviction has renewed calls for stronger regulation of religious organisations in Kenya.

Ojiro Odhiambo of the Kenya Human Rights Commission described the judgment as an important step but called for wider accountability, arguing that local administrators, police, intelligence officers and religious leaders failed to act on warning signs.

President William Ruto had previously acknowledged the government's failure to prevent the deaths and appointed a task force in 2023 to review the regulation of religious organisations.

However, proposed reforms published in 2024 have yet to become law.