A Kenyan court has sentenced doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, after directing his followers to starve themselves to death in the belief that they would meet Jesus, the BBC reports.
Mackenzie was convicted in October alongside 28 co-defendants over the killings linked to his religious group in Shakahola Forest, near Kenya’s coast.
Delivering the sentence on Friday, Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore the “primary criminal culpability” for orchestrating the deadly fasting orders that led to the deaths.
The court sentenced him to 100 years in prison for homicide and another 100 years for offences relating to starvation.
Although the sentences for each category of offence will run concurrently, the two categories will run consecutively, bringing his total prison term to 200 years.
According to the BBC, the judge described the killings as “cold and calculated”, adding that the sentence was intended to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities would attract the maximum penalties permitted by law.
Mackenzie’s 28 co-defendants, including guards who enforced the fasting orders and gravediggers who helped conceal the victims’ bodies, were handed prison terms of up to 160 years.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Mackenzie, but the judge declined to impose it, arguing that capital punishment would remove the possibility of rehabilitation.
Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after authorities uncovered hundreds of bodies buried in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest. More than 400 bodies have since been exhumed from the area.
Investigations revealed that many of the victims died from starvation, while others were killed through suffocation, strangulation or head injuries.
Mackenzie founded Good News International Ministries in 2003 and became notorious for preaching against education and healthcare, which he reportedly described as evil. He later relocated to Shakahola Forest, where he encouraged his followers to join him.
He and his co-defendants denied the allegations, maintaining that nobody was forced to die.
The cult leader is also facing separate manslaughter and terrorism charges, which he has denied.
