Paul Mackenzie, leader of a Kenyan religious sect, was sentenced to 200 years in prison for deaths linked to a starvation scheme. (Foto: Instagram)
Paul Mackenzie, a 53-year-old leader of an apocalyptic sect in Kenya, was sentenced Friday, Nov. 6, to 200 years in prison for the deaths of 190 children and one adult. The sentence includes 100 years for homicide by starvation and another 100 years for direct homicide. Twenty-six other defendants received prison terms ranging from 100 to 160 years.
Investigators said Mackenzie directed followers to fast to death, beginning with children, so they could reach heaven before the end of the world. Parents were instructed to starve alongside their children. According to the investigation, when followers did not comply, the orders were enforced through violence, confinement and deprivation of food and water. Mackenzie denies forcing the victims to die.
Members of the church were also told not to send their children to school or take them to hospitals when they were sick. The sect reportedly described schools as “satanic” and modern medicine as “the devil’s tools.” Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after a man reported that his brother had allowed his children to die in Shakahola Forest on Mackenzie’s orders.
Investigators found more than 400 bodies buried in shallow graves in the forest in southwestern Kenya. Only 26 bodies could be identified because they were severely decomposed. Mackenzie registered the Good News International Church as a religious organization in 2020. It was based in Furunzi, Malindi, and had about 35 branches across Kenya, but its activities took place in Shakahola Forest, where followers from different parts of the country also lived.
Prosecutors said followers sold property, quit their jobs, removed their children from school and destroyed identification documents before moving to the forest. There, they lived in settlements described as biblical.
