Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie guilty of 191 murders

A Kenyan court has found Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Ministries doomsday cult, guilty of murdering 191 people, all but one of them children. Justice Diana Mochache delivered the verdict in the port city of Mombasa after an eight-hour judgement. Mackenzie is due to be sentenced on 6 November.

What was Paul Mackenzie convicted of?

Mackenzie was convicted of 191 murders. Twenty-eight other leaders of his ministry were convicted of murder in the same ruling; all had pleaded not guilty and repeatedly insisted that nobody was forced to die. Justice Mochache said Mackenzie’s followers believed he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece”. One co-accused told the court that Mackenzie had said anyone who “resisted the directive to fast must be forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows”.

Why did followers starve their children?

Mackenzie ordered members of the cult to starve their children to death so they could “meet Jesus”. His doctrine held that education was forbidden and that modern medicine was “evil”. Deaths in Shakahola forest, where the cult was based, were treated as weddings: burials were called “weddings” and, the judge said, those who died “were celebrated as having wedded with Jesus”. A witness told the court that a pregnant woman was barred from nursing her newborn baby, who died 12 days later. “She was instructed to fast to death and follow her children,” the witness said.

What was found in Shakahola forest?

Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after more than 400 bodies were discovered in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast, where he had led followers from across the country. Seventeen men were hired from a nearby town to dig up the graves, and some were paid about $8 (£6) a day. “Every grave we found had at least three bodies,” James, one of the gravediggers, told the BBC. “Some of the remains were of children as young as a few weeks old.”

What have relatives said?

Stephen Mwiti, 48, lost all six of his children to the cult. His former wife was one of those convicted of murder alongside Mackenzie. “All six of my children died in Shakahola forest,” Mwiti said before the verdict, holding a photograph of his family. “I only found and buried the remains of my son Samuel.” After the ruling he told the BBC: “I’m a happy man, that all persons have been convicted.”

What happens next for Mackenzie?

Mackenzie and other leaders of the cult face a raft of other legal cases, including charges of terrorism, radicalisation and denying education to children. This is the first time the pastor has faced a verdict on the most serious charges of murder, and his sentencing is set for 6 November. Courts elsewhere have also handed down long terms in multiple-murder cases: in Mexico, three men were given 158 years each for murdering a group of surfers.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Paul Mackenzie?

Paul Mackenzie is a Kenyan self-proclaimed pastor who founded Good News International Ministries in 2003 and later led his followers to Shakahola forest, where more than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves.

How many people was Paul Mackenzie convicted of murdering?

He was convicted of 191 murders, all but one of the victims children. Twenty-eight other leaders of his cult were convicted of murder in the same ruling.

When will Paul Mackenzie be sentenced?

His sentencing is set for 6 November. He also faces separate cases, including charges of terrorism, radicalisation and denying education to children.

Where was the verdict delivered?

Justice Diana Mochache delivered the eight-hour judgement at a court in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.

With reporting from BBC News.

Stock image, not from the events described. Globe World — Jo%E3o%20Silas / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)