200-year prison sentence for 'Doomsday' cult leader in Kenya
Kenyan court sentences cult leader to death for the murder of 191 people.
Translated by Qiyas from الجريدة — Original source
A Kenyan court on Friday sentenced the leader of a doomsday cult linked to the deaths of 400 people to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people.
The High Court in the coastal city of Mombasa handed down the sentence against Reverend Paul Mackenzie, after convicting him of killing 190 children and one adult, following his order to his followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet the Lord Christ.
Judge Diana Kavindza stated that Mackenzie, leader of the “Good News International” church, bears “primary criminal responsibility” for transporting his followers to a remote area and ordering them to fast until death.
Mackenzie was charged with murder alongside 28 of his followers, including guards who enforced his fasting orders and grave diggers who helped conceal mass graves. All the defendants denied the charges against them, except for one who confessed to the crime and pleaded for mercy.
In 2023, more than 400 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves at the Chakama farm, covering 800 acres (320 hectares), in the coastal Kilifi County. Mackenzie’s followers had lived there in mud huts, away from the scrutiny of local communities and authorities.
