Madar (Mombasa) - A Kenyan court in the coastal city of Mombasa on Monday, October 19, 2026, found cult leader Paul Mackenzie guilty of murdering 191 people, all but one of them children, in what is known as the Shakahola forest massacre, the BBC reported.
Twenty-eight other leaders of the cult were also convicted of murder. They had all pleaded not guilty, insisting that nobody was forced to die. Delivering an eight-hour judgment, Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie's followers believed he was "Jesus's mouthpiece" and that he had ordered them to starve their children to death so they could "meet Jesus".
"I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved the case against all the 29 accused persons," the judge said, according to Africanews. Mackenzie is due to be sentenced on November 6, the BBC said, and also faces separate cases including terrorism, radicalisation and denying children an education.
He was arrested in 2023 after more than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast, where he had gathered followers from across the country. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the death toll at 429 in 2024.
Mackenzie founded Good News International Church in 2003, and his sermons described education as "evil" and rejected modern medicine. The case has prompted calls for tougher regulation of religious organisations in Kenya, as Mackenzie had previously been arrested twice and released.
