Kenya’s Shakahola Cult Leader Found Guilty of 191 Starvation Murders

A Kenyan court has found self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie and 28 of his associates guilty of murdering 190 children and one adult, delivering the first verdict in one of the worst cult-related tragedies in recent history. The judgment, handed down at the Mombasa High Court on Monday after a hearing that stretched beyond eight hours, closes a major chapter of the case that became known as the Shakahola Forest Massacre.

Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against all 29 accused. Sentencing is set for November 6, but the defence immediately said it had been instructed to appeal the convictions.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: A Kenyan court convicted cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 associates of murdering 190 children and one adult in the Shakahola starvation cult. The judge described a “hierarchy of death” enforced through radicalisation. Sentencing is set for November 6; the defence plans to appeal.

The verdict

Mackenzie sat in court wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, alongside his wife — herself one of the co-accused — as the judge read through the charges. When his name was called, he stood silently, staring into space.

The prosecution had accused Mackenzie of initiating and directing extreme fasting at his 800-acre ranch in the Shakahola Forest of south-eastern Kenya, where he built a community around his Good News International Church. Followers were ordered to starve themselves and their children to death, prosecutors said, to reach heaven before the world ended.

Mackenzie denied the charges, arguing he never forced anyone to fast. The court rejected that argument outright. “I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved the case against all the 29 accused persons for the murder of 190 children and one adult,” Justice Mochache said.

Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga welcomed the ruling outside the Mombasa court, calling it the best judgment the state could have hoped for.

A “hierarchy of death”

The most chilling detail to emerge from the judgment was the order in which the starvation was planned. The prosecution said Mackenzie enforced what it called a structured hierarchy of death: children were to die first, followed by teenagers and young men, then women, and finally the remaining men.

Forensic evidence supported the charge. Starvation was established as the cause of death in 72 cases. Other deaths were attributed to asphyxia, manual neck compression and traumatic head injury. For 110 bodies, severe decomposition made the cause of death unascertainable — but the court ruled that starvation could be inferred from the circumstantial evidence surrounding them.

The judge said some children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched. She found that the church bore the defining features of a cult — radicalisation through isolation and domination, the breaking of intimate family ties — with mothers starving their own children. “That, in my final analysis, is the evil of radicalization,” she said. “That which was once unthinkable becomes an act of obedience, and what was once instinctive becomes sin.”

From taxi driver to doomsday preacher

Mackenzie began as a taxi driver before establishing the Good News International Church in 2003. The church grew branches in Nairobi and along Kenya’s coast, drawing thousands of devotees. He claimed it closed in 2019 — the same year authorities shut it down and he moved his followers into the forest.

His history with the authorities was long. Police searched his premises in 2017; he was arrested that year on charges of radicalisation but acquitted. In 2019 he was arrested again over two child deaths at Shakahola but released on bail. Each time, he re-emerged — and the forest community grew.

Inside the forest, members lived in makeshift shelters of polythene sheeting and thatch, in zones Mackenzie gave biblical names such as Jerusalem and Judea. He forbade followers from sending children to school or seeking hospital treatment, branding such institutions as satanic, according to followers interviewed by Reuters in 2023.

How the graves were found

The cult’s activities surfaced in mid-March 2023, when a local man told police that his brother and sister-in-law had starved their children to death in the forest on Mackenzie’s orders. Mackenzie was arrested but released on bail — after which, relatives say, he brought forward the date on which he had told followers the world would end.

Police arrested him again in April 2023 and began combing the forest more systematically. Investigators uncovered hundreds of shallow mass graves; excavations had to pause at times because local morgues ran out of space. In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered from the forest. Only 26 could be identified. Kenya’s national human rights commission put the death toll at 429 in 2024, and investigations into the remaining deaths continue.

Why it matters

The Shakahola verdict lands as Kenya confronts how a known extremist operated in plain sight for years despite repeated contact with law enforcement. President William Ruto said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths and took responsibility as president.

The case has reignited debate over the oversight of religious organisations in a country where faith plays a central role in public life. Churches operate with minimal regulation in Kenya, and the tragedy has produced growing calls for tougher vetting of preachers and congregations — a reform that pits freedom of worship against the state’s duty to prevent abuse.

For the victims’ families, the verdict offered a measure of closure after three years of waiting. Francis Wanje, 62, who lost eight family members — including his daughter and two grandchildren — told reporters the verdict could not bring his people back but showed that something had finally been done. Mackenzie’s estranged 24-year-old son Dan, who attended the ruling, said he felt relief and that justice had happened for the victims.

What’s next

Mackenzie and his co-accused will be sentenced on November 6, with life imprisonment on the table. The defence is not done: lawyer Lawrence Obonyo called the verdict perplexing, said his clients were surprised and disappointed, and confirmed he had been instructed to appeal. “We have so much confidence that the verdict will be overturned,” he said.

Separately, Mackenzie still faces charges of manslaughter, terrorism and child torture in connection with the deaths of more than 230 others. In January he was charged over 52 bodies recovered at Kwa Binzaro village, about 30 kilometres from Shakahola — deaths prosecutors allege he directed while in detention. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases, and further trials are expected.

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Sources: The Straits Times (Reuters); TBS News (Reuters); The Korea Times; South China Morning Post; La Nación (AP)