Good News International Church pastor Paul Mackenzie, who was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult, awaits sentencing Friday at the High Court in Mombasa, Kenya.
Brian Inganga/AP
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Brian Inganga/AP
MOMBASA, Kenya — The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult linked to the deaths of more than 400 people was sentenced Friday to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people.
The High Court in Mombasa, a coastal city in Kenya, handed down the sentence against Pastor Paul Mackenzie. He was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult after ordering his disciples to starve in order to meet Jesus.
Mackenzie also faces terrorism and manslaughter charges for more than 200 other victims, as well as child abuse and torture charges in two other courts.
Judge Diana Kavedza said Mackenzie, leader of the International Church of the Good News, bore “primary criminal culpability” for transferring his followers to a remote location and ordering them to fast to death.
Mackenzie was charged with the murders alongside 28 of his supporters, including guards who enforced his fasting directives and gravediggers who helped cover up the mass graves. All denied the accusations, except for one person who confessed and pleaded for leniency.
Good News International Church pastor Paul Mackenzie, center, who was convicted of 191 murder charges, arrives alongside fellow church members on Friday as he awaits sentencing at the High Court in Mombasa, Kenya.
Brian Inganga/AP
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Brian Inganga/AP
On October 19, the court found all 29 of them guilty of the murder of 191 people.
In 2023, more than 400 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves at the 320-hectare Chakama Ranch in coastal Kilifi County, where Mackenzie’s supporters lived in mud huts, free from the control of communities and local authorities.
More than 60 bodies have been positively identified and reburied by their loved ones, while many others remain unidentified and unclaimed.
During sentencing, Kavedza said 183 victims died of starvation, defined as a complete lack of food, and that the deaths of the other eight were ruled murder by direct homicide.
Kavedza said the killings were “cold and calculated” and rejected claims by some defendants that the loss of their own children changed the fact that they participated in the murders of many other children.
The judge said the perpetrators had shown no remorse and were also ready to fast until death. During sentencing, Mackenzie smiled and chatted often with his assistant pastor, Smart Mwakalama, who was sentenced to 160 years in prison.
All those found guilty were given 14 days to appeal.
The prosecution had argued for the death penalty for Mackenzie and life in prison for his accomplices.
Defense attorney Lawrence Obonyo, who represents Mackenzie and several others convicted, told The Associated Press he has already filed an appeal. He said the decision “turned around the Constitution to impose an unenforceable sentence,” since sentences between 160 and 200 years equate to life sentences.
Suleiman Ziro, a father of seven, who traveled 120 kilometers to be sentenced, lost six of his children and his wife to the cult in 2023. He said the sentence was not enough, especially because he had not yet found the bodies of his relatives, calling for the death penalty in the case.
Mackenzie’s son, Dan Mackenzie, said he felt sorry for his father following the conviction, but that it was “justice served for the victims”. He said he escaped by “rebelling” against his father’s teachings and was often punished for it, but was glad he survived. Two of his younger brothers and three sisters were rescued and are currently in a children’s home.
People sentenced to death by Kenyan courts serve life sentences. The last execution in Kenya was in 1987.
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