{"id":11151,"date":"2026-11-06T16:30:46","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T16:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/kenyan-preacher-sentenced-to-200-years-in-prison-over-child-murders\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T16:30:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T16:30:46","slug":"kenyan-preacher-sentenced-to-200-years-in-prison-over-child-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/kenyan-preacher-sentenced-to-200-years-in-prison-over-child-murders\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan preacher sentenced to 200 years in prison over child murders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kenyan<\/p>\n

A self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher was sentenced to 200 years in prison on Friday for the murder of 190 children and one adult in an infamous starvation cult.<\/p>\n

\n

Hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023 at the sect\u2019s base near the coastal resort of Malindi, in what became known as the \u201cShakahola Forest Massacre\u201d.<\/p>\n

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, was accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death to \u201cmeet Jesus\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was convicted last month of murdering 191 people between January 2021 and September 2023, alongside 28 co-accused.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the court sentenced him to 100 years for the homicide charges and 100 years for the starvation charges, while his accomplices \u2014 many of whom starved their own children to death \u2014 received a variety of lengthy prison terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren observed siblings drop dead\u2026 as their parents ate and drank,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome died as a result of strangulation, severely beaten\u2026 Children were subjected to extreme suffering\u2026 terrifying living conditions, psychological trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mackenzie was impassive as the sentence was read out, as he had been throughout the trial.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors had called for the death penalty, but the judge said it would \u201cfail to achieve deterrence, particularly where the convicts regard death as a pathway to heaven and a union with Jesus and their deceased children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenya has the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1987.<\/p>\n

Francis Wanje, a 62-year-old teacher who lost two grandchildren to the cult, told AFP he had hoped Mackenzie would be sentenced to death to prevent further tragedies.<\/p>\n

Another of his grandchildren, now 11, went without food for eight days before being rescued in March 2023.<\/p>\n

He testified that his brothers, aged two and five, had died after their parents, acting on the guru\u2019s orders, forbade them from eating or drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing can ease the pain,\u201d said Wanje, who blamed authorities for failing to act swiftly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really have great (anger) towards the authorities. If they had taken action, we would not be here today,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Death penalty \u2013<\/h2>\n

Mackenzie\u2019s lawyer said he would appeal the verdict. He also faces manslaughter and terrorism charges in other trials, which he denies.<\/p>\n

Around 120 prosecution witnesses testified during the trial.<\/p>\n

According to witnesses, the movement denounced formal education as \u201csatanic\u201d, viewed modern medicine and hospitals as instruments of the devil and required followers to cut themselves off from the outside world.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 after a rights group alerted authorities and some followers were rescued from the 325-hectare (800-acre) ranch in the Shakahola forest on Kenya\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the death toll at 429 in 2024. Some victims remain unidentified.<\/p>\n

The case has fuelled calls for tighter regulation of religious organisations, after it emerged that Mackenzie had previously been arrested twice but released.<\/p>\n

He established the Good News International Church in 2003 and set up branches in Nairobi and along Kenya\u2019s coast that attracted thousands of devotees, though he claimed it closed in 2019.<\/p>\n

He was arrested in 2017 over charges of \u201cradicalisation\u201d but was acquitted. He was arrested again in 2019 in relation to two child deaths at Shakahola but released on bail.<\/p>\n

\n

Vanguard News<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Kenyan preacher sentenced to 200 years in prison over child murders<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher was sentenced to 200 years in prison on Friday for the murder of 190 children and one adult in an infamous starvation cult. Hundreds of bodies… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}