The leader of a Kenyan Christian cult has been found guilty of the murder of 190 children.
Paul Mackenzie was on Monday convicted along with about 30 other suspects over the deaths of 191 people, all but one of them children in Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya.
The court found the deaths resulted from an “organised system in which religious teachings and an established hierarchy were used to direct and enforce deadly fasting among Mackenzie’s followers,” the office of the director of public prosecutions in Kenya said.
Fasting was implemented sequentially, beginning with children, while guards controlled movement and prevented followers from escaping,” the office said in a statement.
Mackenzie, who is in his early 50s, and his co-accused were charged with the murders in 2024 after hundreds of children’s bodies were exhumed from Shakahola forest where Mackenzie and his associates were accused of running a death cult.
Authorities started digging up bodies in Shakahola forest in April 2023. So far they have recovered 429 bodies. Further charges could follow.
Mackenzie, who ran the Good News International Church, was accused of leading a doomsday cult where he instructed his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could reach heaven and meet Jesus, CNN previously reported.
Autopsy results showed that many of the recovered bodies had died from starvation while others had signs of blunt trauma and strangulation.
