Kenyan court finds cult leader guilty of killing 190 children

A Kenyan court has found sect leader Paul Mackenzie and about 30 associates guilty of killing 190 children and an adult. The case will be sentenced on November 6, Reuters reported.

McKenzie was arrested back in 2023 when police received information from a whistleblower about the horrors taking place in the Shakahola forest in southeastern Kenya. His sect, known as the Good News International Church, is accused of forcing his followers to starve themselves and their children to "get to heaven" before the "end of the world." Despite all the charges, McKenzie denied his guilt, claiming he did not starve the victims, but the court did not accept his arguments.

During the investigation, more than 400 bodies were recovered from the Shakahola forest, many of which were severely decomposed, and only 26 were identified. This is stated in the report published on the website of the Prosecutor General of Kenya. The court's decision concerns the killing of 191 people; investigations into other deaths are ongoing.

Judge Diana Caveza-Mochace noted that in some cases children were starved in front of their parents. McKenzie also prohibited sending children to school or seeking medical care, calling public institutions "satanic." People lived in extreme poverty, in makeshift dwellings with the biblical names “Jerusalem” and “Judea”, which the leader of the sect gave them.

Investigators found that McKenzie planned the massacre by starvation in three stages: first children, then women and young men, and then the remaining men.

Francis Vanier, 62, told Reuters at Mombasa High Court that he had lost eight family members to the cult's activities, including two grandchildren.