Kenyan Cult Leader Mackenzie Gets 200 Years for 191 Murders

A court in Kenya sentenced doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison on Friday for the murders of 191 people, 190 of them children. The ruling closes the first major trial over the Shakahola deaths, but his lawyer says an appeal is already under way and further charges are still pending.

The High Court in the coastal city of Mombasa handed down the sentence, according to ABC News. Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty. The judge declined to impose it, the BBC reported.

The central numbers in the Mackenzie sentencing

• 200 years: Mackenzie's total term. DW reported it as 100 years for 183 counts of murder by starvation and 100 years for eight counts of murder by direct homicide. The BBC said sentences within each category run concurrently, while the two categories run consecutively.
• 191 victims: The number of murders for which Mackenzie was convicted, 190 children and one adult. The court found him and 28 co-accused guilty on Oct. 19.
• 28 co-defendants: They included guards who enforced his fasting orders and gravediggers who helped hide bodies. The BBC said they received sentences of up to 160 years. His assistant, Smart Mwakalama, received 160 years.
• More than 400 bodies: The number exhumed from shallow graves in 2023, according to ABC and the BBC. The convictions cover fewer than half of them.
• 14 days: The time those convicted have to file an appeal, ABC reported.

What the court found

ABC reported that Mackenzie, who led the Good News International Church, ordered followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus. The court said he bore the main criminal responsibility for moving his followers to a remote area and directing them to fast to death.

Judge Diana Kavedza, as ABC and DW name her, called the killings “cold and calculated.” The BBC gives the judge's name as Diana Mochache. She said the perpetrators showed no remorse and had said they were ready to fast to death themselves. She also rejected an argument from some defendants that losing their own children changed their part in the killings of others.

The BBC reported that the judge found the deaths came from an organized system of religious teachings and directives that compelled followers to fast. According to the BBC, people who opposed the teachings were beaten to death. Post-mortem results showed starvation as the cause for most victims. Others died from suffocation, strangulation or head injuries, and for some the cause could not be determined because the bodies had decomposed.

Why it matters: families, oversight and the unfinished cases

For relatives, the verdict brings only partial closure. More than 60 bodies have been identified and reburied by families, according to DW and ABC, but many remains are unidentified and unclaimed.

Reactions differed. Suleiman Ziro, who lost his wife and six children to the cult in 2023, told ABC the sentence was not enough and called for the death penalty, partly because he has not recovered their bodies. Mackenzie's son, Dan Mackenzie, said he felt sorry for his father but called the outcome justice for the victims. He said he escaped by rebelling against his father's teachings.

The case also raised questions about how the cult operated for so long. The BBC said investigations by the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights found that local officials and law enforcement had repeatedly ignored the cult's activities. Francis Wanje, who reported the case to police in March 2023 and lost eight relatives, told the BBC he expected police to act immediately to rescue members, and that they did not. The BBC also noted that Mackenzie had earlier been arrested and released for lack of evidence. President William Ruto set up a commission of inquiry, which was later declared unconstitutional, the BBC reported.

Why a death sentence was not on the table in practice

Kenya still has the death penalty in law but has not carried out an execution since 1987, according to DW, ABC and the BBC. ABC added that people sentenced to death in Kenyan courts serve life terms. The BBC reported that the judge said the case met the threshold for considering capital punishment but that a death sentence would remove any prospect of rehabilitation.

What happens next

Defense lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, who represents Mackenzie and several others, told The Associated Press he had already launched an appeal. He argued that terms of 160 to 200 years amount to life sentences and that the court was stretching the constitution to impose a term that cannot be served.

Mackenzie also faces other cases. ABC reported terrorism and manslaughter charges tied to the more than 200 other victims, plus child abuse and torture charges in two other courts. The BBC said he denies the manslaughter and terrorism charges.

How the Shakahola case began

The BBC reported that Mackenzie founded his church in 2003 and that it drew thousands of followers across Kenya. Its main church shut down in 2019, and he moved to Shakahola forest and urged followers to join him. He was arrested in 2023 after the bodies were found. ABC said the burial site was on Chakama Ranch in Kilifi County, where followers lived in mud huts away from communities and authorities.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by DW, ABC News, BBC News