The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children and one adult. Paul Mackenzie, who led an apocalyptic Christian church in a forest near the Indian Ocean coast, instructed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death to reach heaven before the end of the world.
Mackenzie was convicted alongside 28 of his followers, including guards who enforced his fasting directives and gravediggers who helped conceal the mass graves. The case stems from the April 2023 discovery of mass graves in Shakahola Forest, where cult members lived off grid in mud huts. The graves eventually contained 448 bodies.
Sentencing and Court Findings
During sentencing, Justice Diana Kavedza said that 183 victims died of starvation, defined as a complete lack of food, while the other eight were classified as murder by direct homicide. She described the killings as 'cold and calculated' and dismissed claims by some of the accused that losing their own children altered the fact that they had participated in killing many other children. The justice said the perpetrators showed no remorse and declared they were ready to fast to death as well.
Mackenzie often smiled and chatted with his assistant pastor, Smart Mwakalama, who was sentenced to 160 years in prison. The prosecution had argued for the death penalty for Mackenzie and life imprisonment for his accomplices.
Broader Charges and Impact
Mackenzie is also accused of ordering the deaths of 52 people found at a separate location in a village 20 miles away, bringing the suspected death toll to 500. He has pleaded not guilty in that case and is also facing terrorism, child abuse, and torture charges in two other courts.
Stephen Mwiti, 48, father of six of Mackenzie's child victims and husband of one of his convicted accomplices, said his wife had taken the children to Shakahola where they were starved to death. 'I lost children and I will not be able to get them back no matter what happens to Mackenzie and his accomplices,' he said. 'I expect him to be sentenced to death or be jailed for life so that he never comes out to cause more deaths.'
Dan Mackenzie, one of Paul's sons, said his father did not spare his own family. 'I didn't end up in Shakahola, because I didn't believe any more about going to heaven. So I left the church and started doing my own thing,' he told Reuters. 'I lost friends too, and my younger brother. It's justice to the people who we lost over there in Shakahola.'
Background and Regulatory Response
Mackenzie had been on the radar of authorities since 2017 when his premises were searched by police. In 2019, authorities shut down his church in Malindi, and he relocated to the nearby Shakahola Forest. The discoveries prompted calls for tighter oversight of religious groups. President William Ruto appointed a task force in May 2023 to review the legal and regulatory framework, and separate government-backed and Senate proposals were published in 2024, though they have yet to be passed into law.
