Paul Mackenzie sentenced to 200 years in prison over Shakahola deaths

MOMBASA, Kenya, November 6 – Controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie has been sentenced to a total of 200 years in prison after Justice Diana Kavedza handed down a 100-year term for the murder of children and another 100 years for the murder of adults.

The sentence follows Mackenzie’s prosecution over the deaths linked to the Shakahola massacre, where followers of the Good News International Church were allegedly encouraged to starve themselves to death in a religious fast.

The court imposed separate 100-year sentences for the murders of child and adult victims, bringing the total custodial term to 200 years.

The two sentences will run consecutively.

“Convict one, Paul Mackenzie, bears the primary criminal culpability in his capacity as the overall leader of Good News International (GNI) Ministries and the Shakahola settlement,” Justice Kavdeza said.

The court also sentenced Mackenzie’s 28 co-accused, with their respective prison terms determined by their individual roles, levels of participation, and culpability in the killings.

In her sentencing determination, Justice Kavedza described Mackenzie as the principal architect of the criminal enterprise, having led Good News International Ministries and presided over meetings where he directed followers to fast to death, with children identified as the initial victims.

The judge found that Mackenzie orchestrated the movement of followers into the Shakahola forest, issued instructions through village elders, and presided over burials of victims, which were allegedly referred to as weddings.

The court further established that violence was used against children who resisted fasting or attempted to escape.

In determining the sentences, Justice Kavedza said the vulnerability of the victims, particularly children who depended entirely on adults for food, water and protection, was a significant aggravating factor.

She rejected the defence’s invitation to impose sentences of no more than 10 years, saying such punishment would bear no rational relationship to the loss of 191 lives.

The judge also declined to impose the death penalty sought by the prosecution against Mackenzie, despite describing the case as one that approached the threshold for the rarest of rare cases.

She reasoned that a death sentence could fail to achieve deterrence because some of the convicts viewed death as a pathway to heaven and reunion with their deceased children.

Justice Kavedza said prolonged imprisonment would provide sustained accountability while preserving the possibility that the convicts could disclose the whereabouts of children whose remains have not been recovered.

The court classified 183 deaths as resulting from starvation, comprising 182 children and one adult, while eight children died through direct homicide, including strangulation, suffocation and blunt-force injuries.

It also found that several of the convicted persons had subjected their own children to the mandatory fasting regime, with some losing multiple children in the process.

Justice Kavedza said parental responsibility was an important consideration in sentencing, noting that the Constitution and the Children Act impose a duty on parents to feed, protect and preserve the lives of their children.

She rejected arguments that convicted parents should receive leniency because they had also lost their children, saying such grief could not serve as mitigation where the deaths resulted from their own criminal conduct.

The judge further noted that most of the convicts had denied responsibility during pre-sentence assessments and continued to express adherence to the beliefs associated with the killings.

The court imposed a combination of concurrent and consecutive sentences, taking into account the separate nature of each murder while ensuring that the overall punishment reflected the gravity of the crimes and the individual culpability of each offender.

The 29 accused were convicted on October 19, 2026, after the court found that the prosecution had proved all 191 murder counts beyond reasonable doubt.

The case arose from the discovery of mass graves and human remains in Shakahola Forest in 2023, exposing an organised system of religious radicalisation and enforced fasting linked to Mackenzie’s teachings.