Kenyan doomsday cult leader sentenced to 200 years in prison after murders of 190 children

The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult linked to the deaths of more than 400 people was sentenced on Friday to 200 years in prison.

Pastor Paul Mackenzie was sentenced for the murders of 191 people at the High Court in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa.

Mackenzie was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult after he ordered his followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.

He is also facing terrorism and manslaughter charges for the more than 200 other victims, as well as child abuse and torture charges in two other courts.

Mackenzie bore the "primary criminal culpability" for relocating his followers to a remote location and ordering them to fast to death, Justice Diana Kavedza said.

Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, was charged with the murders alongside 28 of his followers, including guards who enforced his fasting directives and gravediggers who helped conceal the mass graves.

All denied the charges, except for one person who confessed and pleaded for leniency.

On Oct. 19, the court found all 29 of them guilty of the murder of 191 people.

In 2023, more than 400 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves on the 800-acre (320-hectare) Chakama Ranch in coastal Kilifi County, where Mackenzie's followers lived in mud huts, away from the scrutiny of local communities and authorities.

More than 60 bodies were positively identified and reburied by their relatives, while many others remain unidentified and unclaimed.

During the sentencing, Kavedza said that 183 victims died of starvation, defined as a complete lack of food, and the deaths of the other eight were classified as murder by direct homicide.

Kavedza said the killings were "cold and calculated" and dismissed claims by some of the accused that the loss of their own children altered the fact that they had participated in the killings of many other children.

The justice said that the perpetrators didn't show remorse and declared they were ready to fast to death as well.

During the sentencing, Mackenzie often smiled and chatted with his assistant pastor, Smart Mwakalama, who was sentenced to 160 years in prison.

After Mackenzie was arrested, officials said his followers continued to promote his ideas. Last year, authorities discovered dozens more bodies in a nearby village, which they linked to Mackenzie's cult.

All of those who were convicted have been granted 14 days to file an appeal.

The prosecution had argued for the death penalty for Mackenzie and life imprisonment for his accomplices.

Defense lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, who represents Mackenzie and several others who were convicted, told The Associated Press that he had already launched an appeal. He said that the decision was "circling around the constitution to give a sentence that is unattainable" since the sentences of between 160 and 200 years amount to life sentences.

A father of seven, Suleiman Ziro, who traveled 120 kilometers (75 miles) for the sentencing, lost six of his children and his wife to the cult in 2023. He said that the sentence wasn't enough especially because he has yet to recover the bodies of his loved ones, calling for the death penalty in the case.

Mackenzie's son, Dan Mackenzie, said that he felt sorry for his father over the conviction, but it was "justice served to the victims." He said that he escaped by "rebelling" against his father's teachings and was often punished for it, but was glad he survived. Two of his younger brothers and three sisters were rescued and are currently at a children's home.

The families of the children murdered by Mackenzie fear he could keep spreading his message even after his sentencing.

Stephen Mwiti, who lost all six of his children in the Shakahola Forest tragedy, is among those worried about the harm Mackenzie might still be able to do from behind bars.

"Even if he were to be hanged, I will never see my children again," Mwiti, 48, said while visiting his son Samuel's grave in the coastal city of Malindi.

Those sentenced to death in Kenyan courts serve a life sentence. Kenya's last execution was in 1987.