A Kenyan judge sentenced cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison on Friday over the Shakahola massacre, in which 191 people, 190 of them children, were starved to death.
Justice Diana Kavedza of the High Court in Mombasa imposed 100 years for the murders by starvation and a further 100 years for eight counts of murder by direct homicide involving child victims, The Star reported. Sentences within each set run concurrently, but the two sets run one after the other, which brings the total to 200 years.
Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty. The judge declined, saying it would "foreclose the possibility of disengagement and rehabilitation." According to Kenyans.co.ke, she also noted that a convict who stays alive might disclose where the missing children's remains are.
The court found Mackenzie, who led Good News International Ministries, bore primary responsibility as the overall leader of the Shakahola settlement. She said he ordered followers to fast to death, targeted children first and commanded violence against those who resisted or tried to escape. Witnesses testified that he told followers they would enter heaven through "punches and kicks."
The 28 co-accused were convicted with him on Oct. 19. They received sentences of 10 to 160 years, with most getting aggregate terms of 160 years, Kenyans.co.ke reported. The judge ordered all of them except Mackenzie assessed for a government deradicalization and reintegration program, and convicts who have served a third or half of their terms may apply for review.
Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 after a rights group tipped off authorities. Kenyan officials have recovered more than 400 bodies from the Shakahola forest in the years since, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the toll at 429 in 2024, Africanews reported. This case covers 191 of those deaths. Prosecutors argued at trial that Mackenzie "initiated and directed" extreme fasting at his ranch under a "structured hierarchy of death" in which children would die first.
Mackenzie also faces separate charges over 52 more bodies found in a nearby village. His lawyer, Lawrence Obonyo, said after the October verdict that he intended to appeal.