A Kenyan court on Monday found self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie and 28 co-accused guilty of murdering 191 people — 190 of them children — in the Shakahola starvation cult case, closing one of the darkest chapters in Kenya's recent history. The Mombasa High Court ruled that Mackenzie's Good News International Church ran an organised system of enforced fasting and abuse in Shakahola Forest, where followers were told to starve themselves and their children to death so they could "meet Jesus" in heaven.
The verdict in Mombasa
Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache delivered the judgment in a hearing lasting more than eight hours, finding all 29 accused guilty under Kenya's Penal Code. "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," she said, rejecting the defense's claim that the victims had fasted voluntarily. "I reject the defense by the accused persons that the victims, who were all below the age of 16, voluntarily fasted to death."
Mackenzie, in his early 50s, sat silent and stared into space as the verdict was read, wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers. His wife was among the co-accused. The court heard that the deaths resulted from "an organised system in which religious teachings and an established hierarchy were used to direct and enforce deadly fasting," according to Kenya's Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Sentencing is set for November 6.
A "structured hierarchy of death"
Prosecutors said Mackenzie "initiated and directed" extreme fasting at his 800-acre ranch in Shakahola Forest, near the coastal town of Malindi, enforcing a chilling order: children were to die first, followed by teenagers, women, and then men. Guards controlled movement and prevented followers from escaping, while Mackenzie discouraged modern medicine and formal education.
Postmortem evidence presented in court showed the horror went beyond starvation. Lady Justice Diana Kavedza cited findings that some victims died from suffocation, neck compression, or head injuries. In some cases, the court heard, children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.
How the horror was uncovered
Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 after a rights group tipped off authorities and some followers were rescued. What followed shocked the world: police began exhuming shallow graves in Shakahola Forest, eventually recovering 429 bodies. Only 26 have been identified. The murder charges, filed in 2024, covered 191 of those deaths; investigations into the others continue, and further charges could follow.
The case exposed alarming failures. Mackenzie had been arrested twice before — acquitted of radicalisation charges in 2017 and released on bail in 2019 over two child deaths at Shakahola. Prosecutors have called this trial one of Kenya's "most consequential" criminal cases ever. In court, Francis Wanje, 62, who lost eight family members including his daughter and two grandchildren, said simply: "I was hoping for this particular day."
What happens next
With sentencing on November 6, attention now turns to how Kenya prevents the next Shakahola. The tragedy has intensified calls for tougher regulation of religious organisations, after the case revealed how a man twice arrested was able to build a death cult in plain sight. For the families who travelled to Mombasa to hear the verdict, the guilty finding is a measure of justice — but with hundreds of bodies still unidentified and more trials possible, the full reckoning is far from over.
Takeaway: The conviction of Paul Mackenzie closes the central trial of the Shakahola tragedy, but the questions it raised — about missed warnings, unregulated churches, and 429 dead — will haunt Kenya for years.
Watch: NTV Kenya's video report on the High Court's guilty verdict against Paul Mackenzie
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: CNN, Al Jazeera, The Straits Times, Anadolu Agency