A Kenyan court has sentenced self-proclaimed pastor and cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for his role in the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, in one of the country’s most shocking mass murder cases. The sentence was announced on Friday, November 6, 2026, by the High Court in the coastal city of Mombasa.
Mackenzie, who led the Good News International Church, was convicted of directing his followers to starve themselves and their children to death under the false belief that fasting would allow them to meet Jesus in heaven. The killings took place in the Shakahola Forest area of Kilifi County between 2021 and 2023.
According to prosecutors, Mackenzie used religious teachings to persuade followers to abandon food and water. The court found that 183 victims died from starvation, while eight others were killed through direct violence, including suffocation, strangulation and physical assault. The judge ruled that Mackenzie held primary responsibility for organising and directing the deadly activities.
The court imposed two consecutive 100-year prison sentences, bringing his total sentence to 200 years. Twenty-eight other defendants were also convicted in connection with the murders and received prison sentences ranging from 10 to 160 years.
The case first attracted international attention in April 2023, when Kenyan authorities began discovering and exhuming bodies from shallow graves in Shakahola Forest. Investigators eventually recovered 448 bodies from the area, many of them children. Authorities have also linked Mackenzie to a separate case involving another 52 deaths, although those allegations remain subject to separate legal proceedings.
