A Kenyan court has convicted controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 28 co-accused over the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, in Shakahola massacre in Kilifi County.
The self-proclaimed pastor and his Good News International Church organised a Christian doomsday sect in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death, so they could go to heaven before the world ended and “meet Jesus”.
Police arrested Mackenzie in 2023 after receiving after receiving rip-off. After several weeks, authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola Forest near the coast in southeastern Kenya.
Mackenzie, who was convicted along 28 associates, insisted that he did not force the victims to starve, but that was dismissed by the court in Mombasa, where the verdict was announced.
The High Court delivered the judgment on Monday October 19, 2026, ruling that the victims died under an organised system of forced fasting linked to MacKenzie’s religious teachings.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty and denied charges in other cases, including terrorism, radicalisation, and stopping children from attaining an education.
The court said Mackenzie and other convicted in the case will be sentenced on November 6, 2026.
-9News Nigeria.
