Kenyan Pastor Sentenced to 200 Years Over Deaths of 191 Followers

A Kenyan pastor, Paul Mackenzie, has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for his role in the deaths of 191 followers, including 190 children, in the Shakahola Forest massacre.

Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, was handed the sentence on Friday by the Mombasa High Court after being found guilty of murder linked to a deadly fasting exercise he allegedly imposed on members of his congregation.

Justice Diana Kavedza sentenced him to 100 years for deaths resulting from starvation and another 100 years for victims who died through direct violence.

While delivering the judgment, the judge said 183 of the 191 victims died from starvation, comprising 182 children and one adult, while the remaining eight, all children, were suffocated, strangled or beaten to death.

The court also heard that 161 of the children were aged nine or below, while 22 were between 10 and 13 years old. Five others were aged between 14 and 16.

Mackenzie had reportedly persuaded his followers to abandon their homes and relocate to Shakahola Forest in eastern Kenya, where he preached that fasting would prepare them for heaven and enable them to meet Jesus.

However, the court found that followers were subjected to abuse and violence, prevented from leaving the forest, while children were restrained, denied food and punished for attempting to eat or escape.

According to a Kenyan Senate report, Mackenzie’s teachings revolved around predictions that the world would end in August 2023, with followers instructed to fast in preparation for the end of the world.

He reportedly taught that children would die first, followed by young people and women, while men would remain alive to bury the bodies before eventually dying themselves.

Justice Kavedza said Mackenzie used sermons and written materials to convince his followers that the outside world was evil and that salvation could only be achieved in the forest.

Messages recovered from his mobile phone, including WhatsApp conversations, also established that he communicated with followers before they relocated to Shakahola.

Survivors further testified that deaths in the forest were celebrated as “weddings to Jesus”, while those who died were described as “heroes of faith”.

Postmortem examinations also revealed that some victims had injuries consistent with suffocation, strangulation and blows to the head, indicating that starvation was not the only cause of death.

The tragedy came to light in April 2023 after a man reported that his wife and daughter had joined Mackenzie’s religious group in a remote forest but had failed to return.

Following the report, security operatives entered the forest, where they discovered shallow graves and severely weakened survivors who said they had been instructed to starve themselves to meet Jesus.

Investigations subsequently uncovered additional graves containing the bodies of victims, many of them children.

Kenya’s National Commission on Human Rights has reported that 429 bodies have so far been recovered from the forest.

The 191 deaths covered by Mackenzie’s murder conviction form part of the wider Shakahola tragedy, with further legal proceedings expected.