Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie found guilty of murdering 191 people, nearly all of them children

Paul Mackenzie has been found guilty of murdering 191 people. 190 of the victims were children, and one was an adult.

Mackenzie ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could meet Jesus. He was arrested in 2023 after the discovery of more than 400 bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast. Justice Diana Mochache delivered the verdict in Mombasa over more than eight hours. Mackenzie denied the charges, saying he did not force anyone to starve, but the court rejected that argument. About 30 other cult leaders were also convicted of murder. Sentencing is scheduled for 6 November.

A planned mass starvation

Mackenzie planned the mass starvation in three phases, according to people with direct knowledge of the cult’s activities: first the children, then women and young men, and finally the remaining men. His doctrine forbade education and modern medicine, describing both as evil or satanic. Justice Mochache said his followers believed he was Jesus’s mouthpiece. Burials inside the forest were called weddings, and those who died were celebrated as having wedded with Jesus. Cult members lived in makeshift homes of polythene sheeting and thatch, divided into areas with biblical names such as Jerusalem and Judea.

17 men were hired from a nearby town to dig the shallow graves, some paid just $8 (£6) a day. Every grave held at least three bodies. One grave contained 12 children’s bodies arranged in a line. Some children’s bodies had their hands and legs tied and were wrapped in bedsheets. Many of the remains were severely decomposed, and only 26 of the more than 400 bodies recovered were able to be identified. According to the BBC, followers died from starvation, strangulation, and being bludgeoned to death. The first remains were discovered in mid-March 2023. “We once found 12 bodies of children in a line inside a grave,” said James, one of the gravediggers. “It was massive, the bodies were arranged like clothes. One on top of another.”

From taxi driver to self-styled prophet

Mackenzie was a former taxi driver who established Good News International Ministries in 2003. Over 16 years the church drew thousands of followers across Kenya. It ran a television station, Times TV, broadcasting his sermons from Malindi. His End Days sermons included conspiracy theories describing digital identity cards as the mark of the devil. Authorities shut down the church in 2019, and Mackenzie relocated to Shakahola forest. He had been on the authorities’ radar since 2017, when police searched his premises.

Mackenzie was arrested in March 2023 but released on bail. Relatives say he then brought forward the date he had told followers the world would end. Police arrested him again in April 2023 and began systematically exhuming mass graves. President William Ruto said in 2023 that government agencies should have prevented the deaths and took responsibility as president. Mackenzie’s former head of security, Enos Amanya Ngala, entered a plea deal and became a prosecution witness.

Families left with nothing

Stephen Mwiti, 48, lost all six of his children to the cult. His former wife was convicted of murder alongside Mackenzie. Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight family members including two grandchildren. Peter Shukrani, 23, told the BBC he started attending Mackenzie’s church at age eight and described him as his spiritual father. When Shukrani fell ill in the forest, his mother threw away his medicine because she believed only God could heal him, he said. He was rescued and believes he would have died otherwise.

Mackenzie and the other cult leaders face additional charges, including terrorism-related ones. Prosecutors say Mackenzie directed the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, about 18 miles from Shakahola, while in detention. He has pleaded not guilty in that case. Mackenzie’s son, Dan Paul Mackenzie, worked as a cameraperson in the church.