A Kenyan court has sentenced Pastor Paul Mackenzie, leader of a controversial doomsday religious cult, to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, including 190 children.
The High Court in Mombasa delivered the sentence on Friday, November 6, 2026, following Mackenzie's conviction for directing his followers to starve themselves to death in the belief that they would meet Jesus.
Justice Diana Kavedza described Mackenzie as the person bearing the greatest criminal responsibility for relocating his followers to a remote settlement and instructing them to undertake deadly fasting.
The pastor was convicted alongside 28 other members of his religious group, the Good News International Church. The group included security guards who enforced the fasting instructions and gravediggers who helped conceal the victims' bodies.
On October 19, the court found all 29 defendants guilty of participating in the murders. Most denied the allegations, while one admitted involvement and appealed for leniency.
The case attracted international attention in 2023 after investigators exhumed more than 400 bodies from shallow graves at the 800-acre Chakama Ranch in Kenya's coastal Kilifi County.
The victims had reportedly lived in isolated mud huts, away from neighbouring communities and government authorities.
According to the court, 183 of the 191 victims died from starvation, while the remaining eight were killed through direct acts of homicide.
During sentencing, Justice Kavedza described the killings as deliberate and carefully planned. She also rejected arguments by some defendants that losing their own children should reduce their responsibility for participating in the deaths of other children.
Meanwhile, Mackenzie's assistant pastor, Smart Mwakalama, was sentenced to 160 years in prison.
The prosecution had requested the death penalty for Mackenzie and life imprisonment for his accomplices.
Mackenzie is also facing separate charges relating to terrorism, child abuse and torture in two other courts.
The 2023 discovery of the mass graves shocked Kenya and triggered widespread demands for stronger government oversight of religious organisations.
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