By Fatma Younis
The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult linked to the deaths of more than 400 people has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 191 followers. Pastor Paul Mackenzie, head of the Good News International Church, received the sentence on Friday from the High Court in Mombasa.
Conviction and sentencing
Justice Diana Kavedza ruled that Mackenzie bore primary criminal culpability for relocating his followers to a remote ranch and ordering them to fast to death to meet Jesus. The court convicted him of murdering 190 children and one adult.
Mass graves discovered
In 2023, authorities exhumed over 400 bodies from shallow graves on the 800-acre Chakama Ranch in Kilifi County, where Mackenzie’s followers lived in isolation. The victims had starved to death under his directives.
Co-accused found guilty
Twenty-eight of Mackenzie’s followers, including guards who enforced the fasting and gravediggers who concealed the mass graves, were also convicted of the same 191 murders on October 19. All denied the charges except one who confessed and sought leniency.
