Shakahola Cult Leader Paul Mackenzie Sentenced to 200 Years in Prison

Cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has been sentenced to 200 years in prison by the High Court in Mombasa for the deaths of 191 people in the Shakahola Forest.

Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache delivered the sentence on Friday, following Mackenzie and his co-accused's conviction on 191 counts of murder last month.

The court structured Mackenzie's prison term into two distinct categories. He received 100 years for each of the 191 starvation-related deaths and another 100 years for eight direct homicide counts involving children.

While the sentences within each category run concurrently, the two sets run consecutively to reach the 200-year aggregate. The judge noted that this structure reflects the distinct nature of the crimes and the extreme suffering inflicted on the victims.

During the proceedings, the judge rejected the prosecution's push for the death penalty. Justice Kavedza explained that keeping Mackenzie alive preserves the possibility that he may disclose the locations of missing children's remains.

"The death sentence will foreclose the possibility of disengagement and rehabilitation," the judge said. "It would also extinguish the possibility that a living convict may disclose the location of the remains of the missing children."

The court established during the trial that Mackenzie used Good News International Ministries to enforce fatal fasting through religious indoctrination, intimidation, and violence between January 2021 and September 2023. Children were targeted first before the practice expanded to other followers in Kilifi County.

Alongside Mackenzie, 28 co-accused individuals received prison terms ranging from 10 to 160 years. Most of these convicts were handed aggregate sentences of 160 years, with some facing an additional three-year probation period.

Unlike Mackenzie, the other convicts will be assessed for participation in a disengagement, deradicalisation, rehabilitation, and reintegration programme run by the National Counter Terrorism Centre. These individuals may become eligible for sentence review after serving one-third or half of their custodial terms, provided they obtain certification from the NCTC and regional authorities confirming their readiness to rejoin society.

Amnesty International and other groups previously documented the grim recovery of bodies from mass graves across the forest as investigators untangled the scale of the religious massacre.