Kenyan doomsday cult leader sentenced to 200 years for murder

A court in Kenya has sentenced doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children and one adult. The sentencing was reported on Friday by multiple news outlets including the Guardian, the South China Morning Post, Sky News, rte.ie, Al Jazeera, RFI, the Irish Times, the Bury Times, the Brentwood Live and the Colchester Gazette. The South China Morning Post noted that the High Court in the coastal city of Mombasa handed down the sentence. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Justice Diana Kavedza stated that the sentence comprised 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years for direct homicide, according to the Guardian and rte.ie. The Guardian reported that the judgment came two weeks after the court found Mackenzie guilty of the crimes. The South China Morning Post, the Irish Times and rte.ie reported that Mackenzie had ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death to meet Jesus. [1][2][4][7]

Sky News and RFI reported that the deaths took place in the Shakahola forest. Sky News specified that the murders occurred between January 2021 and September 2023. RFI added that hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023 at the cult base near the beach resort of Malindi. [3][6]

Good News International Ministries was founded by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his first wife in 2003. The apocalyptic Christian new religious movement was later designated an organized criminal group by the Kenyan government following the deaths of more than 400 members and children at its base in Kilifi County, Kenya. As FTMQ News reported earlier, Mackenzie and his co-defendants faced 191 murder charges for forcing children to starve to death under a doctrine that banned education and modern medicine. [1][2][4][11][12]