Relatives of victims of Kenya’s Shakahola starvation cult massacre have welcomed a court’s decision to convict self proclaimed preacher Paul Mackenzie and 28 associates of murdering 191 people, including 190 children, after years of waiting for justice.
The verdict was delivered on Monday by the High Court in Mombasa in a case that has drawn national and international attention since hundreds of bodies were discovered in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest in 2023. More than 400 bodies have since been recovered from the area.
Francis Wanje, 62, who lost eight family members, including two grandchildren, said the judgment brought relief after a lengthy legal process.
“I am happy. It’s something that I did not expect because first the case has taken so long,” Wanje said, according to Reuters. He added that although the verdict could not bring his relatives back, it offered a measure of justice.
Mackenzie, the leader of Good News International Church, was convicted alongside 28 others over deaths linked to a religious group whose followers were allegedly instructed to starve themselves and their children to reach heaven.
In her ruling, Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache found that the accused whose individual participation had been established acted together to implement and sustain a fasting regime that resulted in the deaths. Prosecutors presented evidence that children were denied food and that force and intimidation were used to prevent followers from abandoning the practice.
Mackenzie denied forcing his followers to starve, but the court rejected his defence and found the prosecution had proved the murder charges beyond reasonable doubt.
The discovery of mass graves in April 2023 exposed the scale of the tragedy in the coastal region of Kilifi County, near the town of Malindi. Many victims died from starvation, while postmortem examinations also identified deaths linked to suffocation, strangulation and injuries.
The case has raised questions about oversight of religious organisations and how Mackenzie continued operating despite previous encounters with law enforcement. Police had investigated his activities before the Shakahola deaths came to light, and authorities shut down his church premises in 2019, according to reports.
Mackenzie and the convicted co accused are expected to be sentenced on November 6. His defence lawyer, Lawrence Obonyo, said the defence intended to appeal the convictions.
Mackenzie also faces separate manslaughter and terrorism related proceedings connected to other deaths. Those cases remain distinct from Monday’s murder verdict.
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