20-Year Prison Sentence for Kenyan Sect Leader Convicted of Killing 191 Followers

A Kenyan court sentenced the leader of the “Good News International” sect, Paul Mackenzie, to 200 years in prison on Friday, after convicting him of killing 191 of his followers, including 190 children and one adult, whom he ordered to starve themselves to death in the belief that they would meet Jesus Christ. The High Court in the coastal city of Mombasa issued the sentence against Mackenzie, whose name became linked to the deaths of more than 400 of his followers, in one of the cases that sparked widespread shock in Kenya. Judge Diana Kavindza stated that Mackenzie bore “primary criminal responsibility” for moving his followers to a remote area and issuing orders for them to fast until death, in accordance with the beliefs he promoted. The convicted man was charged 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 sought leniency. On October 19, the court convicted all 29 defendants of killing 191 people, following a trial that revealed the horrific circumstances surrounding the deaths of sect members. The case dates back to 2023, when Kenyan authorities exhumed more than 400 bodies from shallow graves at the Chakama farm, an 800-acre (approximately 320-hectare) property in the coastal Kilifi County. Mackenzie’s followers had lived in mud huts on the farm, isolated from local communities and authorities, after relocating to the remote area where they were subjected to his orders to fast and starve to death. The exhumation operations revealed the scale of the tragedy, with the number of victims whose bodies were found exceeding 400, while the convictions in the case pertained to the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children and one adult.