Kenyan Court Sentences Paul Mackenzie to 200 Years for Shakahola Murders

Kenya's High Court in Mombasa sentenced Paul Nthenge Mackenzie to a total of 200 years in prison on November 6 for murders linked to the Shakahola Forest deaths. The case covered 191 victims, comprising 190 children and one adult, in Kilifi County. Mackenzie founded the Good News International Church. Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache imposed a 100-year term for the starvation deaths of 183 victims and another 100 years for the direct killing of eight children. Sentences within each category run concurrently, while the two categories run consecutively. Prosecutors had requested the death penalty, which the judge declined to impose. Other defendants received prison terms ranging from 10 to 160 years. The judge said: "The sentence is appropriate and just." The court found that enforced fasting and violence caused the deaths. Autopsies identified starvation alongside strangulation, suffocation and blunt-force injuries. Mackenzie denied forcing followers to starve, a defence the court rejected. The sentence follows the October 19, 2026 conviction over killings committed between January 2021 and September 2023. The wider mass-grave investigation began in 2023 and recovered more than 400 bodies, a broader toll than the 191 murders covered by this case. Mackenzie also faces separate manslaughter and terrorism proceedings and denies those allegations.