A Kenyan court on Friday sentenced sect leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children who starved to death on his orders and were buried in a forest, among the 500 suspected victims of one of the deadliest sect-related massacres in modern times.
The sentence comprised 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years for deliberate murder, said Judge Diana Kavedza as she read the verdict.
Prosecutors said that Mackenzie, who led an apocalyptic Christian church in a forest near the Indian Ocean coast in eastern Kenya, ordered his followers to die of starvation, along with their children, in order to reach paradise before the end of the world.
According to the indictment, accomplices threatened and beat the victims to ensure compliance with the orders. Extremely weakened bodies were found scattered in shallow graves and dumped into latrines. Some victims had been buried alive.
Mackenzie, wearing a gray polo shirt and black pants, did not react as the judge read his sentence in a tent set up outside the courthouse where the hearing was held.
He had denied the charges of murder, claiming that he did not force the victims to starve. The court rejected his defense.
Twenty-eight accomplices received sentences ranging from 10 to 160 years. All were found guilty in a trial last month.
Defense lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, who represents Mackenzie and almost all of the other convicted individuals, said he would appeal the decision.
Judge Kavedza stated that Mackenzie won the victims’ trust through his charismatic presence in the media and then chose defenseless and vulnerable followers as targets. Those who tried to interrupt the fast were beaten and tied up, according to her.
“Children watched their siblings die after days without food,” she said. “Those who stole food or water were beaten, their hands tied, and locked in houses transformed into places of fasting so they would die.”
The case shocked Kenya in April 2023 when police began finding bodies in the Shakahola Forest near the coastal town of Malindi.
Although only the cases of 190 children and one adult victim were addressed at the trial, Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission says that 448 bodies were found in the forest.
Mackenzie is also accused of ordering the deaths of 52 people found in another location, in a village 30 km away, raising the total estimated number of victims to 500. He pleaded not guilty in that case.
