By Ebi Kesiena
A Kenyan court has sentenced Paul Mackenzie, leader of a doomsday religious group, to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, including 190 children, in the Shakahola massacre.
The High Court in Mombasa handed down the sentence on Friday after convicting Mackenzie and 28 other defendants over the killings linked to a religious sect whose followers were instructed to starve themselves to death in preparation for meeting Jesus.
Justice Diana Kavedza said Mackenzie bore the “primary criminal culpability” for relocating his followers to a remote location and directing them to fast until death.
Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, was sentenced alongside his co-defendants, who received prison terms ranging from 10 to 160 years.
The court had convicted all 29 defendants on October 19 on the 191 murder counts. Mackenzie was prosecuted alongside 28 followers, including guards accused of enforcing his fasting instructions and gravediggers alleged to have helped conceal the bodies.
While most of the defendants denied the charges, one pleaded guilty and sought leniency.
During sentencing, Kavedza explained that 183 victims died from starvation, while the remaining eight were killed through direct homicide.
The judge described the killings as “cold and calculated”, dismissing arguments by some defendants that the loss of their own children should reduce their responsibility for participating in the deaths of other children.
She also noted that the perpetrators had shown no remorse and had indicated their willingness to starve themselves to death.
Mackenzie was reportedly seen smiling and chatting with his assistant pastor, Smart Mwakalama, during the court proceedings. Mwakalama was sentenced to 160 years in prison.
The case followed the discovery of more than 400 bodies in 2023 at the 800-acre Chakama Ranch in coastal Kilifi County, where Mackenzie’s followers reportedly lived in mud huts while observing the fasting directives.
More than 60 bodies were positively identified and reburied by their relatives, while many others remained unidentified and unclaimed.
The prosecution had sought the death penalty for Mackenzie and life imprisonment for his accomplices.
The court granted all the convicted defendants 14 days to appeal their sentences.
Defence lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, who represented Mackenzie and several other defendants, told The Associated Press that he had initiated an appeal.
He argued that the lengthy prison terms effectively amounted to life imprisonment, describing the sentences as “circling around the Constitution to give a sentence that is unattainable”.
