A Kenyan court has sentenced Pastor Paul Mackenzie, the founder of Good News International Church, to 200 years in prison for his role in the deaths of 191 church members who were manipulated into starving themselves and their children to death in the name of meeting Jesus.
Mackenzie and 27 other defendants were found guilty of influencing church members to undertake deadly fasts, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
Delivering the judgment at the Mombasa High Court on Friday, Justice Diana Mochache held Mackenzie primarily responsible for the crimes, noting that he had instructed his followers to fast until death.
The judge described the sentence as appropriate and necessary to send a strong message that such atrocities deserve the maximum punishment permitted by law.
The conviction follows investigations into the deaths of members of Mackenzie’s church, whose bodies were discovered in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest in 2023.
More than 400 bodies were eventually recovered from the forest, with investigations revealing that many of the victims had died from starvation after following their pastor’s instructions to fast in preparation for meeting Jesus.
Mackenzie, who pleaded not guilty, had denied forcing or compelling anyone to participate in the fast. State prosecutors had sought the death penalty for him and his accomplices.
