Kenya Court Sentences Doomsday Cult Leader to 200 Years in Prison

A Kenyan court has sentenced Paul Mackenzie, leader of the doomsday cult known as Good News International Church, to 200 years in prison for orchestrating the starvation deaths of followers in the Shakahola forest. The court delivered a split verdict, handing down 100 years for murder through starvation and an additional 100 years for manslaughter, following the discovery of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies.

The gruesome case came to light in April 2023 when Kenyan police raided the remote forest area and uncovered dozens of shallow graves. Investigators revealed that Mackenzie, a former taxi driver who turned to preaching in the early 2000s, convinced his followers to fast to death under the pretext of preparing for the apocalypse and meeting Jesus. The cult compound was divided into biblical sectors named after locations such as Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem.

According to testimonies presented during the trial, followers were subjected to intense indoctrination, with children targeted first to speed up the process before women and men followed. Although Kenyan authorities had previously detained Mackenzie on separate charges in 2017 and early 2023, he was repeatedly released on bail before the large-scale raid halted the mass starvation plot. Mackenzie continues to deny additional pending charges, including terrorism and causing the deaths of dozens of other victims whose remains were later discovered nearby.