Kenyan court convicts Shakahola church leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 others of 191 murders
Kenya's High Court in Mombasa convicted Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, founder of Good News International Church, and 28 others of murdering 191 people, 190 of them children, who died after enforced fasting in Shakahola forest. Sentencing is set for Nov. 6.
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Kenya's High Court in Mombasa on Monday, Oct. 19, convicted Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, founder of Good News International Church, and 28 co-accused of murdering 191 people. The victims were 190 children and one adult, who died between January 2021 and September 2023 at Shakahola, in Kilifi County on Kenya's coast. Justice Diana Kavedza said sentence will be delivered on Friday, Nov. 6.
The judge rejected the defense argument that the victims, all but one of them under 16, fasted voluntarily. "I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved the case against all the 29 accused persons," she ruled, Capital FM reported. The court found that a directive to fast was passed through village elders and enforced by a structured system. The fasting began with children, and guards stopped followers from leaving, according to the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC). The court also found that the church, which Mackenzie founded in 2010, operated as a cult. Evidence showed it preached an imminent end of the world and discouraged medicine and formal schooling.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) called 123 witnesses, among them child survivors, and presented forensic, DNA and digital evidence, KBC reported. Those convicted include Mackenzie's deputy, Smart Deri Mwakalama. One accused pleaded guilty, and two others died during the trial. Pre-sentence reports are due Oct. 30. Mackenzie and others still face separate proceedings, including on charges of radicalization and organized crime.
Bodies were discovered in mass graves in Shakahola forest in April 2023. Kenya's National Commission on Human Rights later documented 448 deaths, Capital FM reported.
Sources
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation: DPP secures convictions of Mackenzie, 28 others in Shakahola killings (Oct 19, 2026)
https://www.kbc.co.ke/dpp-secures-convictions-of-mackenzie-28-others-in-shakahola-killings/Capital FM: Court convicts all 29 Shakahola accused of murder, sets sentencing for November 6 (Oct 19, 2026)
https://capitalfm.africa/court-convicts-all-29-shakahola-accused-of-murder-sets-sentencing-for-november-6/
Corrections and updates
- Update, October 21, 2026: Brief prepared from Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (Muraya Kamunde; published Oct. 19, 2026) and Capital FM (Irene Mwangi; published Oct. 19, 2026). One-off; no threadId. The sheet date is Oct. 19, the judgment, so sourcePublishedAt is 2026-10-19. The brief is in the Oct. 21 edition, so publishedAt and editionDate are 2026-10-21. Tags are global and law-courts. Tradition is omitted. Good News International Church is not filed under a denomination. No persecution tag. The KNCHR figure of 448 deaths is kept separate from the 191 murder convictions. Rechecked Oct. 21, 2026: Capital FM still says sentence will be delivered on Friday, Nov. 6, and that pre-sentence reports are due Oct. 30. Sentence has not been delivered. No one-line update added. No prior Wayback snapshot was found for either source. No photo.