Kenyan preacher who told his followers to starve in the Shakahola forest gets two centuries behind bars
Paul Mackenzie was found guilty in October of the deaths of 190 children and one adult, and prosecutors had asked for the death penalty.
A Kenyan high court on Friday sentenced cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison, VRT NWS and the Kenyan daily The Star report. Judge Diana Kavedza imposed 100 years for starving 182 children and one adult to death and another 100 years for the murder of eight children. The deaths occurred between January 2021 and September 2023 in the Shakahola forest on the coast, near Malindi. According to The Star, the prosecution had sought the death penalty.
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, preached that the end of the world was near and that those who fasted to death would meet Jesus. According to witnesses, the children were to starve first, then the women and the men, and anyone looking for food was beaten, VRT NWS writes. Mackenzie and his 28 co-defendants denied forcing anyone to fast, but the court rejected that.
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, 448 bodies were recovered at Shakahola, IBTimes UK reports. In a separate case Mackenzie is accused of ordering the deaths of 52 people in the village of Kwa Binzaro; he has pleaded not guilty there. His son Dan Mackenzie told Reuters the sentence was justice for those who died, among them his younger brother.