A Kenyan court on Monday found starvation cult leader Paul Mackenzie and about 30 others guilty of murder over the deaths of 190 children and one adult in one of the world's worst cult-related disasters in recent history.
Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after police received a tip-off, and weeks later authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola forest near the coast in southeastern Kenya.
Prosecutors say Mackenzie and his Good News International Church organised a Christian doomsday sect in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven before the world ended.
Mackenzie denied murder charges, saying he did not force the victims to starve, but the court rejected that argument.
Decomposed bodies
In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered from the Shakahola forest. Many were severely decomposed, with only 26 bodies able to be identified.
Monday's judgment covered 191 deaths while investigations into the other deaths are ongoing.
Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache said in a hearing lasting more than eight hours that in some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.
Mackenzie was in court, wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, sitting alongside his wife who is one of the co-accused.
He was silent, staring into space before the ruling was handed down.
Family members of some of those who died in the forest gathered to hear the judgment at Mombasa High Court.
The Shakahola tragedy has gripped Kenya since the discovery of mass graves in the coastal forest more than three years ago.
President took responsibility
It raised questions over how Mackenzie was able to continue to operate despite having been on the radar of the authorities since 2017 when his premises were searched by police.
In 2019, authorities shut down Mackenzie's church and he relocated to the Shakahola forest, police said.
The case has also led to calls for tougher oversight of churches and other religious organisations in a country where religious faith plays a prominent role in public life.
Kenyan President William Ruto said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths. He said he took responsibility as president.
A former taxi driver, Mackenzie forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to hospital when they were ill, branding such institutions as Satanic, some of his followers told Reuters.
