Crimeupdated 21m ago2 min read
Paul Mackenzie Sentenced To 200 Years For Shakahola Deaths Of 191 People
8outlets comparedWhere the coverage agrees
6 Western Mainstream2 OtherThis article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Paul Mackenzie sentenced to 200 years for 191 Shakahola murders. Sentence includes 100 years for starvation and 100 years for direct murder.
Save coverage image
8 outlets in this story. Read their headlines below.
200 Years for Shakahola
A Kenyan court sentenced doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for murdering 191 people, all but one of them children, after prosecutors argued the scale and circumstances warranted the harshest punishment. Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore the "primary criminal culpability" for ordering followers to fast to death so they could "meet Jesus," and she set the sentence at 100 years for homicide and another 100 years for offences related to starvation.
The court declined to impose the death penalty, with Mochache saying, "Nevertheless, the court declines the invitation to impose the death penalty on any of the victims," and she added that capital punishment would eliminate any prospect of rehabilitation and disengagement. Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after the discovery of more than 400 bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast, and the court sentenced Mackenzie alongside 28 accomplices who received varying prison terms of up to 160 years.
What the Court Found
Justice Diana Kavedza said the sentence consisted of 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years for direct homicide, and she read out the judgment at the Mombasa High Court in Mombasa, Kenya. Prosecutors said Mackenzie told followers to starve themselves to death, along with their children, to reach heaven before the end of the world, and the court rejected Mackenzie’s defence that he did not force the victims to starve.
Kavedza said 161 of the victims were children aged 9 or younger, and she said 183 of the 191 victims died from starvation including 182 children and one adult. Justice Diana Kavedza said Mackenzie bore the "primary criminal culpability" for relocating his followers to a remote location and ordering them to fast to death, and it said the court granted 14 days to file an appeal for those convicted.
Appeals, Missing Bodies, and Charges
Mackenzie and the co-accused had asked for leniency from the court, and the BBC said they had pleaded not guilty before their conviction on 19 October while repeatedly insisting that nobody was forced to die. Defence lawyer Lawrence Obonyo said he would appeal the ruling, and the convicted defendants had been granted 14 days to file an appeal while Mackenzie faced terrorism and manslaughter charges in other courts.
Survivors testified that deaths in the forest were celebrated as "weddings to Jesus," with those who died regarded as "heroes of faith," and authorities began exhuming bodies from Shakahola in April 2023 after reports that people had died while following Mackenzie’s teachings. Investigators were still searching the Shakahola forest for more bodies because the missing number was in the hundreds, and Mackenzie was also charged with the deaths of 52 people found in mass graves at Kwa Binzaro after forced fasts orchestrated from prison.