A Kenyan court has found self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie guilty of murdering 191 people, 190 of them children. Twenty-nine other leaders of his doomsday cult were also convicted of murder.
Mackenzie ordered followers to starve their children so they could meet Jesus. His teachings forbade education and portrayed modern medicine as evil. Justice Diana Mochache said his followers believed he spoke for Jesus. The defendants had pleaded not guilty and insisted no one had been forced to die.
Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after more than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves in Shakahola forest, near Kenya’s coast, where he had led followers from across the country. He is due to be sentenced on 6 November. He and other cult leaders also face separate cases involving terrorism, radicalisation and denying children an education.
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