The High Court in Mombasa has sentenced cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for orchestrating the starvation and murder of 191 people, closing a major chapter in the Shakahola massacre.
Lady Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache, who convicted Paul Mackenzie and 28 co-accused on October 19, found that the former Good News International Church preacher and 28 co-accused bore primary criminal responsibility for the deaths.
Justice Mochache handed Mackenzie two consecutive 100-year prison terms, the first covering murders committed through starvation, while the second related to direct homicides.
The court found that 183 victims died from starvation and eight children were suffocated, strangled or beaten to death, rejecting the defence argument that the victims had voluntarily fasted. The Judge held that children could not legally consent to being starved to death and that religious belief could not remove criminal responsibility.
‘Path to Heaven’
Of the 191 victims covered by the murder case, 190 were children and one was an adult. The case represents only part of the wider Shakahola tragedy, where more than 400 bodies were recovered after authorities began excavating graves in 2023.
The court established that followers were persuaded to abandon their homes and relocate to the remote Shakahola forest in Kilifi County, where extreme fasting was presented as a path to heaven. Evidence showed that the fasting regime was enforced and that followers attempting to resist or leave faced coercion.
The tragedy first exploded into national consciousness in April 2023 when police operations uncovered shallow graves and severely malnourished followers inside the expansive settlement.
Investigations had gathered momentum after the starvation deaths of two children in March 2023. Police subsequently rescued severely malnourished followers before searches across the forest uncovered hundreds of bodies.
What initially appeared to be an isolated religious cult investigation rapidly developed into an unprecedented recovery operation spread across an approximately 800-acre property. More than 400 bodies were eventually exhumed, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights documenting 448 deaths connected to Shakahola.
The murder prosecution that followed became one of Kenya’s most complex criminal trials.
The State presented evidence from survivors, investigators, medical professionals and forensic experts.
On April 2026, after prosecutors had called 121 witnesses, the Court determined that the accused had a case to answer.
Family and followers
Among those who testified against the preacher was his son, Dan Mackenzie, whose account offered an extraordinary glimpse into life within his father’s religious movement. Dan Mackenzie opened up to the court about the continuing influence of his father’s teachings on members of their family and followers.
The younger Mackenzie disclosed how he had rejected the teachings years earlier, and after his father’s conviction, he said the verdict brought some relief for victims and their families.
The sentencing, which had other convicts received sentences ranging from 10 to 160 years according to their individual roles, completes the murder trial’s most significant phase.
Mackenzie, whose defence has indicated it will challenge the decision, still faces separate legal proceedings, including terrorism and manslaughter charges connected to other Shakahola victims.
While the sentence brings a sense of justice to the victims’ families, the 200-year sentence is just one chapter as the broader criminal process surrounding the massacres continues.
