A Kenyan court has sentenced a sect leader to 200 years in prison, after he was convicted of killing 190 children and adults after inciting them to starve themselves to death in the hope of "meeting Christ." Although the trial only included the cases of 190 children and one adult, the Kenya National Human Rights Commission says that 448 bodies were eventually found in the forest.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 19:17

A court in Kenya on Friday sentenced a religious sect leader, Paul McKenzie, to 200 years in prison, on charges of killing 190 children who were starved to death on his orders and buried in a forest, among 500 suspected victims in one of the bloodiest mass killings linked to religious sects in modern times.

Judge Diana Cavedza said, in the ruling, that the sentence was divided into 100 years for the charge of murder by starvation and another 100 years for the charge of premeditated murder.

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For his part, the Public Prosecution said that McKenzie, who was leading a Christian church that believed in the end of the world in a forest near the Indian Ocean coast in eastern Kenya, ordered his followers to starve themselves to death, along with their children, in order to reach heaven before the end of the world.

His accomplices threatened and beat the victims to ensure they complied with his orders.

The emaciated bodies were found scattered in shallow graves and dumped in latrines. Some of them were buried alive.

On the other hand, McKenzie did not show any reaction during the reading of the verdict in a tent set up outside the courtroom where the session was held.

He had denied the murder charges, saying he did not force the victims to starve.

The court rejected his defense.

In the same context, 28 of McKenzie's associates were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 10 to 160 years. They were all convicted in a trial that took place last month.

Defense lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, who represents McKenzie and almost all the other convicts, said he would appeal the ruling. While Cavedza said that McKenzie gained the trust of his victims through his attractive media presence, then he targeted his defenseless and helpless followers. She added that those who tried to break the fast were subjected to beatings and restrictions.

She added, "Children were watching their siblings falling to death after starving for several days. As for those who were stealing food or water, they were being beaten, their hands were tied, and they were locked in homes, which turned into places of fasting until death."

“What is the fault of the children?”

The case shocked Kenya in April 2023, when police began discovering bodies in the Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi.

Although the trial only included the cases of 190 children and one adult, the Kenya National Human Rights Commission says that 448 bodies were eventually found in the forest.

McKenzie is also accused of ordering the killing of 52 people who were found at a separate location in a village 30 kilometers away, bringing the total number of suspected victims to 500. McKenzie has pleaded not guilty in this case.

The scale of this massacre is compared to the size of another religious sect's crime in Uganda, in which more than 700 people were killed in 2000, and the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana, when an American sect leader killed more than 900 people when he ordered them to drink poison.

Stephen Moeti, 48, the father of six of McKenzie's victims and the husband of one of his convicts, said his wife took the children to Shakahola, where they starved to death.

Moeti asked in statements before the ruling was pronounced, "Even if we assume that the adults agreed to fast, what is the fault of the children?" He added, "I lost my children and I will not be able to get them back no matter what happens to Mackenzie and his partners."

For his part, Dan McKenzie, one of Paul McKenzie's sons, said that his father did not even have mercy on his family.

"I didn't end up at Chuckaholla because I no longer believed in the idea of ​​going to heaven. So I left the church and started living my life my way. I lost friends too, and I lost my younger brother," he added.

France 24/Reuters

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