“They were going to meet Jesus.” The pastor sentenced 190 children to starvation

The verdict concerns the death of 191 people. 190 of them are children.

Judge Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore "primary blame" for ordering his followers to fast until death, one of the most tragic episodes in the history of various sects around the world.

The sentence is appropriate and fair and sends a clear signal that such atrocities deserve the maximum punishment provided by law, the judge added.

Formally, the court sentenced Mackenzie to 100 years in prison for the murder and another 100 years for the starvation crimes. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, arguing that the scale and circumstances of the killings justified the most severe penalty.

Mackenzie was tried along with 28 accomplices, including guards who enforced his fasting order and gravediggers who helped hide victims' bodies in mass graves. They received prison sentences of up to 160 years.

The Mystery of the Shakahola Forest

The self-proclaimed pastor was arrested in 2023. The police received a tip from a relative of a family belonging to the sect, who reported to the police that his brother and his wife - on Mackenzie's orders - starved their children to death in the Shakahola forest, in the area of ​​the sect's headquarters in south-eastern Kenya.

In April 2023, police began combing the forest, discovering graves. In total, over 400 bodies were found in the Shakahola forest. Many of them were in a state of advanced decomposition; only 26 people were identified.

Each grave found contained at least three bodies, one of the exhumation workers told the BBC.

Among the remains were even several-week-old children. Once we came across 12 children's bodies arranged in a row in one grave. Bodies were lying on top of each other like clothes, the employee added.

Other workers described that some children had their "hands and feet tied and their bodies wrapped in sheets."

Mackenzie pleaded not guilty to murder charges, claiming that he did not force the victims to starve, but the court rejected this explanation.

The 200-year prison sentence applies to 191 deaths, but it must be remembered that investigations into the remaining deaths are still ongoing.

They considered him a spokesman for Jesus

The doctrine preached by the leader of the Good News International Ministries sect prohibited education and called modern medicine evil. Mackenzie also spread conspiracy theories about the fight against nation states by the Catholic Church, the UN and the US, which intended to establish a new world order and introduce a global government.

Mackenzie's followers considered him a spokesman for Jesus, Judge Mochache said during a hearing a month ago. Those who opposed Mackenzie's teachings were beaten to death.

One of the co-defendants said he told Good News International Ministries supporters that anyone who "disobeyed the fasting order must be forced to go to heaven by kicks and punches."

The judge said burials in the forest were called "weddings" and the deaths of subsequent people were "celebrated as weddings to Jesus."

Autopsy results showed that in most cases the cause of death was starvation, but some victims died of suffocation or head injuries.

In some cases, the cause of death could not be determined because their bodies had decomposed. There were also people who died after the sect was broken - as a result of exhaustion.

History of the sect

Investigations by the state-funded Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) found that local authorities and law enforcement officials repeatedly turned a blind eye to the cult's activities.

Mackenzie founded Good News International Ministries in 2003. Over the next 16 years, the sect became increasingly popular, attracting thousands of believers to its branches throughout Kenya. There was even a television station called Times TV, which broadcast its leader's sermons from the "Last Days" series (describing education as "evil", health care as "contrary to doctrine", and digital identity cards as "the mark of the devil").

The sect's headquarters was closed in 2019. Mackenzie then moved into the Shakahola forest, encouraging his followers to follow him.