The court found that 191 people, including 190 children, died under a deadly fasting regime enforced through violence and deprivation at Shakahola Forest.
Controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has been sentenced to 200 years in prison over the deaths of 191 people at Shakahola Forest in Malindi, Kilifi County, in one of Kenya’s most disturbing cases of religious extremism.
High Court Judge Diana Kavedza handed down the sentence after finding that the prosecution had proved the murder charges arising from deaths that occurred between January 2021 and September 2023.
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The co-convicts also received lengthy prison terms. Fifteen were sentenced to 160 years each, while 10 received 140 years each. Another convict was jailed for 100 years, while Enos Amanya Ngala and Lucas Owino received 10 years each.
Amanya’s sentence followed a plea-bargaining agreement with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), under which he admitted all 191 counts of murder.
The court found that 190 children and one adult had died under circumstances linked to a fasting regime imposed on followers of Mackenzie’s Good News International Church.
The convictions covered 183 counts of murder by starvation and eight counts involving direct homicide, alongside the death of one adult.
In her judgment, Justice Kavedza said medical evidence established starvation as the cause of death in 72 cases, while other victims died from asphyxia, manual neck compression and traumatic head injuries.
In 110 cases, decomposition prevented pathologists from determining the precise cause of death. However, the court found that the surrounding circumstances and the fasting regime supported the conclusion that these victims had also died from starvation.
How followers were led to Shakahola
The court found that Mackenzie radicalised church members through teachings that rejected formal education, modern medicine and government institutions.
According to the judgment, followers were taught that education was satanic, hospitals were instruments of the devil and government identification programmes, including the Huduma Number, were associated with the beast described in the Book of Revelation.
Mackenzie’s church was registered as a religious society in 2020, with him as chairman and Smart Deri as secretary. It had its headquarters at Furunzi in Malindi and approximately 35 branches across Kenya.
Followers were encouraged to separate themselves from outsiders before relocating to what Mackenzie described as the ‘church in the wilderness’ at Shakahola.
Some sold their property, resigned from employment, withdrew their children from school and destroyed identification documents before moving to Chakama Ranch, where settlements were organised into biblical villages, including Galilaya, Judea, Tiro, Bethlehem, Sidoni, Samaria and Sikari.
Children were to fast first
Justice Kavedza found that Mackenzie directed followers to fast to death in preparation for meeting Jesus, with children expected to go first, followed by young people, women and men. Mackenzie and his family were to undertake the final stage.
The court established that the instructions were enforced through violence, confinement and the withholding of food and water. Those who resisted faced physical punishment, including kicks and blows.
The judge also emphasised that parental responsibility is a legal duty to protect a child’s life, health and welfare. Parents have no legal entitlement to subject children to death in pursuit of religious beliefs.
The court held that knowingly exposing children to the fatal fasting regime and preventing them from accessing food or escaping could establish a direct connection between parental actions and their deaths.
The prosecution was led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, alongside Peter Kiprop, Head of the Coast Region, Jami Yamina, Victor Owiti, Ngina Mutua, Betty Rubia and Yassir Mohammed.
