In brief
Paul Mackenzie, known for leading the Good News International Ministries, was found guilty by a Kenyan court of ordering the starvation deaths of 191 people, primarily children, in Shakahola forest. The prosecution detailed how the cult banned education and medicine, encouraged followers to fast to death, and conducted mass graves. Ten other cult leaders were also convicted of murder. The verdict followed months of forensic investigation and testimonies from survivors.
Paul Mackenzie, who once preached from a television studio in Malindi, has been found guilty by a Kenyan court of ordering the starvation deaths of 191 people, primarily children, in the Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast.
The court’s 8‑hour verdict detailed how the cult banned education and modern medicine, encouraging followers to fast to death as part of a “wedding” into Jesus. Witnesses said that children were deliberately denied food, and some graves contained dozens of bodies wrapped in bedsheets.
Ten other cult leaders were also convicted of murder, and Mackenzie faces a separate sentencing hearing on 6 November. The investigation uncovered more than 400 bodies in shallow graves that were found in March 2023.
The case has drawn international attention to the dangers of extremist religious movements in Kenya. The survivors, some of whom were rescued from the forest, urged that he did cause the death of many, while others maintain that Mackenzie was not directly forcing the children to starve.
