A Kenyan doomsday cult leader, Paul Mackenzie, has been convicted of murdering 191 people, all but one of them children, in a case that exposed the horrifying consequences of his religious teachings and the deaths of hundreds of followers in a remote forest.
Mackenzie, who led the Good News International Ministries, allegedly directed members of his religious group to starve themselves and their children to death to secure a place in heaven and meet Jesus.
The court also convicted 28 other leaders of the cult, all of whom had pleaded not guilty and repeatedly maintained that nobody had been forced to die.
Delivering an eight-hour judgment in the coastal city of Mombasa, Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie’s followers regarded him as the mouthpiece of Jesus and followed his teachings even when they led to devastating consequences.
One of his co-accused told the court that Mackenzie had instructed followers who resisted fasting to be forced into death through physical violence.
According to the testimony, those who refused to comply with the directive were to be sent to heaven through “kicks and blows”.
The court also heard disturbing accounts of how deaths were celebrated within the cult. Burials in the forest where the group operated were reportedly referred to as “weddings”, with deceased followers described as having married Jesus.
In one particularly tragic account, a pregnant woman was allegedly prevented from breastfeeding her newborn baby, who died just 12 days after birth.
The woman was reportedly instructed to continue fasting until she died and could follow her children to the afterlife, according to a witness who testified in court.
Mackenzie’s former head of security, Enos Amanya Ngala, was initially accused in the case but later entered a plea agreement and became a prosecution witness.
For Stephen Mwiti, a 48-year-old father, the convictions brought a measure of relief after he lost all six of his children in the Shakahola forest tragedy.
His former wife was among those convicted alongside Mackenzie.
Speaking outside the court, Mwiti welcomed the verdict, describing it as a moment of justice for families devastated by the deaths of their loved ones.
“I’m a happy man, that all persons have been convicted,” he told the BBC.
Before the judgment, Mwiti had spoken emotionally about the loss of his children while holding a photograph of his family.
“All six of my children died in Shakahola forest,” he said, adding that he had only been able to recover and bury the remains of his son, Samuel.
His experience reflects the devastating toll of the tragedy on families whose loved ones were drawn into Mackenzie’s religious movement.
The scale of the deaths became clearer in 2023, when authorities began uncovering hundreds of bodies buried in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near Kenya’s coast.
Seventeen men from a nearby town were recruited to help exhume the remains. Some reportedly received as little as $8 a day for the grim assignment.
One of the gravediggers, identified as James, told the BBC that many graves contained several bodies.
“Every grave we found had at least three bodies,” he said, recalling the discovery of children who appeared to have been only a few weeks old.
He described one grave containing 12 children buried in a line, with their bodies stacked on top of one another.
Other gravediggers reported finding children whose hands and legs had been tied, with their bodies wrapped in bedsheets.
The remains were discovered across the forest where Mackenzie had established a community of followers who travelled from different parts of Kenya to live according to his teachings.
Although many of the victims came from outside the area, some were known to residents of nearby Shakahola town. Cult members occasionally visited the town to purchase supplies and collect water from the River Galana.
Salim Karisa, another gravedigger, said he and other residents sometimes transported people into the forest on their motorbikes without understanding the full extent of what was happening there.
“We would sometimes carry people on our motorbikes into the forest,” he said.
“But it was so planned and secretive that nobody could tell what was happening inside.”
By March 2023, when local herders first discovered human remains, hundreds of people had already died.
Karisa recalled the condition of some victims who were still alive when they were brought out of the forest.
“We would carry someone out of the forest but they were so frail that they would die in our arms,” he said.
The discovery of the graves triggered a major investigation into the activities of Mackenzie and his followers.
More than 400 bodies were eventually discovered in Shakahola forest, although many victims remain unidentified because of the advanced decomposition of their remains.
Court documents have identified some victims only as “unknown male child”, with investigators recording the locations of their graves and the dates on which their remains were found.
Evidence surrounding the deaths pointed to starvation and other forms of violence, including strangulation and fatal beatings.
Mackenzie established Good News International Ministries in 2003. Over the following 16 years, the church attracted thousands of followers through its branches across Kenya.
The organisation also operated a television station, Times TV, which broadcast Mackenzie’s sermons from his church in Malindi.
His teachings increasingly focused on the end of the world and the need for followers to prepare for the final days.
According to accounts presented in the case, Mackenzie promoted conspiracy theories and described education as evil, modern healthcare as contrary to his doctrine, and digital identity cards as the mark of the devil.
These teachings discouraged followers from participating in ordinary aspects of modern life, including sending children to school and seeking medical treatment.
His son, Dan Paul Mackenzie, said he worked as a cameraman for the church and witnessed its religious gatherings.
He recalled how children sat at the back of the congregation while adults occupied the middle section, with worshippers singing religious songs throughout the morning.
Mackenzie would begin his sermons around noon, delivering fiery messages that sometimes included what he described as the casting out of demons.
For many followers, the church became the centre of their lives, with Mackenzie occupying a position of considerable spiritual authority.
Peter Shukrani, 23, was among those who survived the ordeal after being rescued from the forest.
He had been introduced to Mackenzie’s church as a child and began attending its services when he was eight years old.
Shukrani described Mackenzie as his spiritual father and said he continued to hold him in high regard despite the suffering he experienced.
When he moved into the forest with his mother, Shukrani became seriously ill. However, his condition deteriorated because medication was forbidden under the religious teachings he had been raised to follow.
He said his mother repeatedly discarded the medicine he needed, believing that God alone could heal him.
“My mother believed Pastor Mackenzie’s doctrine that medicine was evil,” Shukrani said.
He recalled that life in the forest initially appeared ordinary, with families living in scattered mud houses and observing periods of fasting followed by small meals.
“We lived a quiet normal life, fasting for a few days then having a small meal,” he said.
However, the situation became increasingly dangerous as the fasting continued and the health of residents deteriorated.
Shukrani spent weeks bedridden before he was eventually rescued.
Looking back on the experience, he said he believed he would have died had rescuers not found him in time.
“I would have died if I wasn’t rescued from Shakahola forest,” he said.
Despite surviving the ordeal and witnessing its devastating effects, Shukrani continued to defend Mackenzie before the verdict was announced.
He insisted that followers had made their own decisions to fast and maintained that the pastor had not forced anyone to participate.
“Mackenzie didn’t force anyone to fast. People made those choices by themselves because of their beliefs,” he said.
“I still love him and he is still my pastor.”
His position highlights the powerful influence Mackenzie continued to exert over some followers, even as the deaths in Shakahola prompted one of Kenya’s most disturbing criminal investigations.
In contrast to Shukrani’s continued loyalty, Mackenzie’s son, Dan Paul Mackenzie, said his father should be held responsible for the deaths.
He argued that his father’s position as the leader of the religious movement made him accountable for the actions carried out under his authority.
“He was the leader, he was someone who they were looking [up to]. So he is a murderer of mass killing,” he said before the verdict.
The contrasting accounts underscore the complex dynamics within the group, where some followers continued to defend Mackenzie while others believed his leadership had contributed to the deaths of hundreds of people.
The murder convictions represent a major development in the legal proceedings against Mackenzie, who was arrested in 2023 following the discovery of mass graves in Shakahola forest.
He and other leaders of the movement face additional legal cases involving allegations of terrorism, radicalisation and denying children access to education.
The murder case was the first time Mackenzie faced the most serious charges connected to the deaths.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on 6 November.
The case has raised serious questions about the influence of religious leaders, the vulnerability of followers to extreme teachings, and the protection of children from harmful practices carried out in the name of faith.
For families who lost children, parents and other relatives in Shakahola, the convictions mark a significant step towards accountability.
Yet the discovery of hundreds of bodies, the suffering of survivors and the continuing efforts to identify victims remain stark reminders of the human cost of the tragedy.
