# Kenyan cult leader sentenced to 200 years for Shakahola deaths

> Paul Mackenzie was convicted of murdering 191 people, mostly children, by forcing them to starve at his cult's forest base near Malindi.
- Title: Kenyan cult leader sentenced to 200 years for Shakahola deaths
- Summary: Paul Mackenzie was convicted of murdering 191 people, mostly children, by forcing them to starve at his cult's forest base near Malindi.
- Keywords: paul mackenzie, shakahola forest, kenya, cult, starvation, malindi, good news international ministries, mombasa high court, mass murder, RFI
- Source: RFI — https://rfi.fr/en/africa/20261106-kenyan-cult-leader-sentenced-to-200-years-for-shakahola-forest-deaths
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: paul mackenzie, shakahola forest, kenya, cult, starvation, malindi, good news international ministries, mombasa high court, mass murder, news, world
## 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.
## Key takeaway

Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie was sentenced to two hundred years in prison for murdering one hundred ninety-one people, mostly children, by forcing them to starve between January two thousand twenty-one and September two thousand twenty-three.