Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor who ordered followers to starve their children to death so they could "meet Jesus," has been found guilty of 191 counts of murder. The conviction came at Mombasa High Court, Kenya, following an eight-hour judgment delivered by Justice Diana Mochache. Mackenzie, head of Good News International Ministries, was convicted alongside 28 co-accused cult members, all but one of the charges relating to young children.
Evidence of Coercion and Abuse
The court heard harrowing evidence that cult members viewed Mackenzie as "Jesus's mouthpiece." One co-accused revealed that anyone who resisted the directive to fast was "forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows." A witness testified that a pregnant follower was barred from nursing her newborn baby, causing the infant to die 12 days later, before the mother was instructed to "fast to death and follow her children." Burials in the forest were grotesquely celebrated as "weddings with Jesus."
Mackenzie and his co-defendants, including his former wife, had all pleaded not guilty, repeatedly claiming no one was forced to die. His former head of security, Enos Amanya Ngala, turned prosecution witness after entering a plea deal, giving crucial evidence on how the systematic death order was enforced.
Mass Graves Discovery
The convictions follow the horrifying 2023 discovery of mass graves in Kenya's remote Shakahola Forest, where over 400 bodies were eventually exhumed. Local workers hired to exhume the shallow graves described scenes of total devastation inside the cult's forest camp. "Every grave we found had at least three bodies," James, a local gravedigger, told the BBC. "Some of the remains were of children as young as a few weeks old [...] We once found 12 bodies of children in a line inside a grave. It was massive, the bodies were arranged like clothes - one on top of another."
Gravediggers noted that several children were buried with their hands and legs tied, wrapped tightly in bedsheets.
Background and Aftermath
Mackenzie founded his church in 2003, using a dedicated television channel, Times TV, to broadcast extreme end-times sermons from his base in Malindi, an Indian Ocean coastal town in southeastern Kenya. He preached that modern medicine was "evil," education was forbidden, and digital identity cards were "the mark of the devil." After closing his main church in 2019, he led his followers into the Shakahola wilderness.
Former follower Peter Shukrani, 23, who was rescued from the forest in a severely deteriorated state, recalled how his mother threw away all his medication because she believed "only God could heal me." Relief swept through victims' families following the guilty verdict, including Stephen Mwiti, 48, who lost all six of his children to the cult and whose former wife was among those convicted on Monday (October 19). "I'm a happy man, that all persons have been convicted," he said outside the court while holding a photograph of his family. "All six of my children died in Shakahola forest... I only found and buried the remains of my son Samuel."
Mackenzie, who still faces additional legal cases covering terrorism, radicalisation and child cruelty, is scheduled to be sentenced for the murder convictions on November 6.
