A court in Kenya sentenced religious cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison on Friday for the murder of 190 children. They starved to death on his orders and were buried in a forest. According to Reuters, the children are among around 500 suspected victims of one of the worst ritual massacres in modern times.
Judge Diana Kavedza explained as she delivered the sentence that 100 years were for murders through starvation, while a further 100 years were for direct killings.
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Mackenzie led a Christian church with apocalyptic beliefs in a forest near the Indian Ocean coast in eastern Kenya. Prosecutors said he urged followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could reach heaven before the end of the world.
To ensure his orders were followed, Mackenzie’s associates threatened and beat the victims. Bodies severely emaciated by starvation were discovered in shallow graves and pits used as toilets. Some victims had been buried alive.
The hearing was held in a tent outside the courthouse. Mackenzie, wearing a grey polo shirt and black trousers, smiled as he entered. He had denied the murder charges and claimed he had not forced the victims to go without food, but the court rejected his defence.
The case shocked Kenya in April 2023, when police began finding bodies in Shakahola forest, near the coastal town of Malindi. The trial covered the cases of 190 children and one adult victim, while the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says a total of 448 bodies were discovered in the forest.
In a separate case, Mackenzie is accused of ordering the deaths of 52 people whose bodies were found in a village about 30 kilometres away. These cases bring the number of suspected victims to 500. He has also pleaded not guilty to this charge.
The scale of the tragedy has drawn comparisons with the deaths of more than 700 people caused by a religious cult in Uganda in 2000 and the Jonestown massacre in Guyana in 1978. In the latter, an American cult leader ordered his followers to drink poison, causing the deaths of more than 900 people.
Stephen Mwiti, 48, lost his six children as a result of Mackenzie’s orders. His wife, one of the cult leader’s convicted associates, had taken the children to Shakahola, where they starved to death.
In an interview with Reuters before the sentence was announced, Mwiti asked what the children had done wrong, even if the adults had agreed to fast.
He said no sentence against Mackenzie and his associates could bring his children back. Mwiti said he had hoped Mackenzie would be sentenced to death or life imprisonment so he would never be released and cause more deaths.
Dan Mackenzie, one of Paul Mackenzie’s sons, said his father had not spared even his own family. He told Reuters he did not go to Shakahola because he no longer believed in the idea of going to heaven; for that reason, he left the church and went his own way.
Dan Mackenzie also said he had lost friends and his younger brother. He said the verdict brings justice for the people who lost their lives in Shakahola.
Authorities had been monitoring Mackenzie since 2017, when police searched his premises. In 2019, authorities closed his church in Malindi, and he moved his activities to nearby Shakahola forest.
After the victims were discovered, calls grew for stronger oversight of religious groups. In May 2023, President William Ruto set up a task force to review the legal and regulatory framework governing religious organisations.
Two separate proposals were introduced in 2024, one backed by the government and the other by the Senate. Neither has yet been passed into law.
Ojiro Odhiambo, head of rapid response at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, described the sentence as an important step but called for accountability to extend further.
He said local administrators, police, intelligence services and religious leaders also bore responsibility because they had failed to act despite repeated warning signs. According to Odhiambo, they had all failed the public.
In 2023, President Ruto acknowledged his responsibility as head of state for the government’s failure to prevent the deaths.
