Madar (Mombasa) - Kenya's High Court on Friday, November 6, 2026, sentenced preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, 190 of them children, in Shakahola forest in coastal Kilifi County, Kenyan news site Citizen Digital reported.
The sentence comprises 100 years for homicide and 100 years for starvation offences, according to AFP. The deaths occurred between January 2021 and September 2023; the court found 183 of them were murders by starvation and eight were direct homicides, the site said.
Judge Diana Kavedza also sentenced 28 co-accused: 15 to 160 years each, 10 to 140 years, one to 100 years and two to 10 years, one of whom had pleaded guilty to all 191 counts under a plea bargain with prosecutors, Citizen Digital reported. The judge said no parent has the legal right to decide that a child should die in pursuit of religious beliefs.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Mackenzie and life terms for his accomplices. His lawyer, Lawrence Obonyo, said he had already launched an appeal, the Associated Press reported. Mackenzie also faces separate manslaughter and terrorism charges, which he denies, according to AFP.
In 2023, Kenyan authorities exhumed more than 400 bodies from shallow graves on Chakama Ranch in Kilifi County, where his followers lived in mud huts away from local communities and authorities, according to AP. Mackenzie and 28 co-accused were convicted on October 19.
