Paul Mackenzie, a Kenyan preacher found guilty in October of the murder of 191 people, almost all children, was sentenced to 200 years in prison by a court in Mombasa. The sentence arrived today, Friday 6 November. The prosecution had requested the death penalty for him. Paul Mackenzie was the leader of the “Good News International Church”, a religious cult in which followers were convinced to starve themselves and their children “to meet Jesus”.
Those who helped him were also condemned
Another 28 people who helped Mackenzie in the “cult”, including the guards who enforced his orders, were sentenced to various sentences: the highest being up to 160 years in prison. The judge who imposed the sentence decided not to apply the death penalty “because it would eliminate any possibility of rehabilitation of the condemned”, she said during the trial hearing. Death sentences have not been carried out in Kenya since 1987.
The sect and the forest estate
The Kenyan preacher had founded the Good News International Church in 2003 and over time had managed to attract many followers, also helped by the fact that the sect had a television that broadcast his sermons. He was arrested in 2023: the bodies of 429 people were found on his estate in the Shakahola forest, in the south of the country. Most of them had died of starvation, while others had been strangled, beaten or suffocated. Mackenzie’s responsibility was established for only a portion of the deaths.
According to some survivors, Mackenzie had claimed that fasting would ensure their place in heaven. Among the people found dead there were also many families with children. Investigations revealed that some girls belonging to the group that practiced the cult had been sexually molested. The man is on trial in two other Kenyan courts on charges of terrorism, child abuse and torture.