A Kenyan court has convicted doomsday preacher Paul Mackenzie and 28 co-defendants of murdering 191 people, including 190 children, in a starvation cult case that shocked the country.
The verdict was delivered on Monday, October 19, 2026, by the High Court in Mombasa. The case centred on followers of Mackenzie’s Good News International Church, who prosecutors said were encouraged and forced to starve themselves and their children to death in the belief that they would enter heaven and meet Jesus.
Justice Diana Kavedza ruled that Mackenzie and his associates operated a system in which religious teachings and a strict hierarchy were used to enforce deadly fasting.
Evidence presented during the trial indicated that children were targeted first, with some isolated and denied food while their parents watched. Followers were also discouraged from accessing hospitals and sending their children to school because Mackenzie regarded such institutions as evil.
The case emerged in 2023 after authorities began investigating reports of missing people in the Shakahola Forest in coastal Kilifi County. Subsequent searches uncovered hundreds of bodies buried in shallow graves, making the discovery one of Kenya’s most disturbing cases of mass death.
More than 400 bodies have been recovered from the forest, although Monday’s murder verdict covered 191 deaths. Investigations and separate legal proceedings involving other deaths remain ongoing.
Mackenzie denied forcing his followers to starve, but the court rejected his defence. He and his co-defendants face sentencing on November 6, 2026, and could receive life imprisonment.
The tragedy has renewed calls in Kenya for stronger oversight of religious organisations and action against leaders accused of exploiting their followers’ faith.
