A Kenyan court has handed Paul Mackenzie, founder of Good News International Church, a 200-year prison sentence over the deaths of 191 church members who were persuaded to starve themselves and their children in a bid to meet Jesus.
Mackenzie and 27 others were found guilty of encouraging church members to take part in deadly fasts that led to the deaths of hundreds of people.
Delivering the ruling at the Mombasa High Court on Friday, Justice Diana Mochache held Mackenzie mainly responsible, saying he had directed his followers to continue fasting until they died.
The judge said the punishment was necessary to show that such acts would attract the harshest penalty allowed by law.
The case followed an investigation into the deaths of church members whose bodies were found in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest in 2023.
More than 400 bodies were later recovered from the forest. Investigators found that many of the victims died from starvation after obeying Mackenzie’s instructions to fast in preparation for meeting Jesus.
Mackenzie had pleaded not guilty and denied forcing anyone to take part in the fast. Meanwhile, state prosecutors had asked the court to sentence him and his accomplices to death.
