Kenyan cult leader sentenced to 200 years for Shakahola deaths

Cult leader convicted of mass murder

Paul Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor, was sentenced to two hundred years in prison on Friday for murdering one hundred ninety-one people, mostly children, by forcing them to starve.

Shakahola forest massacre timeline

Mackenzie was found guilty of murdering one hundred ninety children and one adult between January two thousand twenty-one and September two thousand twenty-three at his cult's base near Malindi.

Justice Mochache on the sentence

Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore primary criminal culpability for ordering followers to fast to death. The sentence sends an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant maximum penalties allowed by law.

“The sentence is appropriate and just, to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law.”

Prosecutors sought death penalty

Prosecutors called for the death penalty, citing the scale of loss of life and danger posed by Mackenzie's actions. Kenya has not carried out an execution since nineteen eighty-seven.

Families demand accountability from authorities

Francis Wanje, a sixty-two-year-old teacher who lost two grandchildren, told AFP he blamed authorities for failing to act swiftly. Mackenzie had been arrested twice before but released, in two thousand seventeen and two thousand nineteen.

“Nothing can ease the pain.”