Kenya preacher jailed 200 years for starving 190 children to death

Paul Mackenzie. Photo: AFP via Getty Images

A self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher, Paul Mackenzie, has been sentenced to 200 years in prison by the country’s court for orchestrating the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, by ordering his followers to starve themselves to death in the belief that they would meet Jesus.

Mackenzie was convicted alongside 28 co-defendants over the deaths linked to his religious group in Shakahola Forest, near Kenya’s coastal region.

Delivering the sentence, Justice Diana Mochache held that Mackenzie bore the “primary criminal culpability” for directing his followers to undertake deadly fasting rituals.

The court sentenced him to 100 years’ imprisonment for homicide and another 100 years for offences relating to starvation.

Although the sentences under each category will run concurrently, the two categories will run consecutively, bringing his total prison term to 200 years.

According to the BBC, the judge described the killings as “cold and calculated,” stressing that the punishment was intended to send a strong message that such atrocities would attract the maximum penalties permitted by law.

Mackenzie’s 28 co-defendants, including guards who allegedly enforced the fasting orders and gravediggers who helped conceal the victims’ bodies, were also sentenced to various prison terms of up to 160 years.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Mackenzie, but Justice Mochache rejected the request, arguing that capital punishment would remove the possibility of rehabilitation.

The shocking case came to light in 2023 when authorities arrested Mackenzie following the discovery of hundreds of bodies buried in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest.

More than 400 bodies have since been exhumed from the forest, with investigations revealing that several victims died from starvation, while others were killed through suffocation, strangulation, and head injuries.

Mackenzie founded Good News International Ministries in 2003 and became notorious for sermons in which he reportedly described education and healthcare as evil.

He later relocated to Shakahola Forest, where he encouraged his followers to join him and embrace extreme religious teachings.

However, Mackenzie and his co-defendants denied the allegations, insisting that nobody was forced to die.

The convicted preacher is also facing separate manslaughter and terrorism charges, which he has denied.