The verdict

A court in Mombasa found Paul Mackenzie guilty on Monday, 19 October 2026, of murdering 191 people, 190 of them children and one adult. Prosecutors had charged him with 191 killings, all but one of them of children. Reports put the number of co-accused found guilty alongside him at 29 to about 30, and all of them had denied the charges. Mackenzie maintained that he never forced anyone to starve, but the court rejected that argument. The verdict is the first against him on the gravest murder charges, while other cases on terrorism, radicalisation and denying children an education are still pending. His wife is among the co-accused, and sentencing is set for 6 November 2026.

Children190

Adult1

Children

190 people

Adult

1 people

Data from the article text

How the children died

Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache read the judgment over more than eight hours, describing a doctrine that turned fasting into a route to death. Mackenzie ordered his followers to stop eating so they could meet Jesus, and his teaching held that education was forbidden and modern medicine was evil. The judge said that in some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched. A co-accused told the court that Mackenzie instructed followers to send anyone who resisted the fast to heaven by force, with kicks and punches. A witness described a woman who was barred from feeding her newborn, which died 12 days later.

“The evidence identifies him as the principal source of the doctrine under which fasting was transformed from an act of religious observance into a prescribed route to death.”

The judge added that where starvation did not kill, the children were killed by hand. Burials in the forest were called weddings, and the judge said the deaths were celebrated as a marriage to Jesus.

The Shakahola graves

Authorities said more than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves in the Shakahola Forest, a remote area of southeastern Kenya near the Indian Ocean. Many were so badly decomposed that only 26 could be identified, and investigations into the other deaths are ongoing. Seventeen men were hired from the nearest town to dig up the graves, and some of them were paid only US$8 a day. One gravedigger, James, told the BBC that every grave held at least three bodies, and that some of the children were only a few weeks old. He also described one large grave holding 12 children laid in a line, with the bodies stacked like folded clothing.

Earlier warnings and the investigation

Police had Mackenzie on their radar from 2017, when his premises were searched. In 2019 authorities shut down his church, and he relocated to the Shakahola Forest, police said. He was arrested in 2023 after police received a tip-off, and within weeks investigators began uncovering the graves. The former head of his security, Enos Amanya Ngala, was initially charged but struck a plea deal and became a witness for the prosecution. The case has prompted calls for tighter oversight of churches and other religious organisations in Kenya, where faith plays a prominent role in public life. President William Ruto said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths.

Families and what comes next

Family members of some of the victims gathered at Mombasa High Court to hear the judgment. Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight relatives, including two grandchildren, to the cult. Before the verdict he said:

“It has been really a heavy thing (for) us as a family.”

He said he had been hoping for this particular day. Sentencing is set for 6 November 2026, and investigations into the other deaths continue.