Kenyan Doomsday Cult Leader Convicted of Murdering 191 People
Kenyan doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie was convicted of murdering 191 people, mostly children, who starved to death in the Shakahola forest.
Paul Mackenzie, a Kenyan doomsday cult leader who ordered his followers to starve their children to death to meet Jesus, has been convicted of the murder of 191 people. With a single exception, all the victims were children.
The verdict was handed down by a court in Mombasa following an eight-hour session. Twenty-eight other cult leaders were convicted alongside Mackenzie. The trial revealed that followers referred to the burial rituals of the victims as weddings, celebrating them as having married Jesus. Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after mass graves containing more than 400 bodies were discovered in the Shakahola forest. The cult leader operated the Good News International Church, using extremist doctrines to ban education and modern medicine while enforcing fatal fasts. Mackenzie faces sentencing on November 6 and confronts additional charges including terrorism and radicalization.
