A Kenyan court has convicted self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie and 28 other defendants over the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, in a religious group linked to mass starvation in the country’s infamous Shakahola Forest massacre.
The verdict was delivered on Monday, October 19, 2026, by Justice Diana Mochache in the coastal city of Mombasa, following a lengthy trial over one of Kenya’s most disturbing cult-related tragedies.
According to reports by the BBC and Vanguard, Mackenzie allegedly instructed followers of his religious group to starve themselves and their children to death in the belief that doing so would enable them to meet Jesus.
All the defendants had pleaded not guilty, maintaining that nobody had been forced to die.
Delivering an eight-hour judgment, Justice Mochache told the court that Mackenzie’s followers regarded him as the mouthpiece of Jesus, highlighting the influence he allegedly exercised over members of the group.
During the trial, the court heard disturbing accounts of how members who resisted the fasting directives were allegedly subjected to violence.
One of Mackenzie’s co-accused reportedly told the court that followers who refused to fast were to be forced into compliance through physical punishment.
The individual was quoted as saying that anyone who resisted the directive had to be forced to “go to heaven through kicks and blows”.
The court also heard that burials in the forest were referred to as “weddings”, with deceased followers described as people who had been united with Jesus.
These accounts formed part of the evidence presented during proceedings examining the circumstances surrounding the deaths of hundreds of people associated with the group.
The investigation into the Shakahola Forest massacre uncovered numerous graves containing the remains of victims, many of them children.
According to testimony cited in the report, 17 men from a nearby town were hired to dig graves in the forest. Some reportedly received as little as $8 a day for the work.
One gravedigger, identified as James, described the discoveries as deeply disturbing.
“Every grave we found had at least three bodies,” he told the BBC, adding that some of the remains belonged to children only a few weeks old.
He also recounted finding 12 children buried together in a single grave, with their bodies stacked on top of one another.
Another gravedigger, Salim Karisa, said some members of the group were known to residents of neighbouring Shakahola town because they occasionally travelled to purchase supplies and collect water from the River Galana.
Karisa said the group’s activities inside the forest remained secretive, making it difficult for outsiders to understand what was happening.
Mackenzie founded Good News International Ministries in 2003 and reportedly attracted thousands of followers over the following years through church branches across Kenya.
The organisation also operated a television station, Times TV, which broadcast his sermons from Malindi.
His teachings reportedly discouraged conventional education and medical treatment, while digital identity cards were described as being associated with the devil.
After the church’s main branch closed in 2019, Mackenzie relocated to Shakahola Forest and encouraged followers to move there.
Investigators later uncovered evidence of mass deaths in the forest, bringing international attention to the group and the circumstances in which its members had lived.
Among those who followed Mackenzie into the forest was Peter Shukrani, who moved there with his mother after joining the church as a child.
Shukrani said he became seriously ill while living in the forest, where medication was prohibited under the group’s teachings.
He recalled that his mother discarded the medicines he needed because she believed that only God could heal him.
My mother believed Pastor Mackenzie’s doctrine that medicine was evil. I would have died if I wasn’t rescued from Shakahola forest, he said.
Shukrani was eventually rescued after becoming bedridden for weeks. Despite his experiences, he continued to defend Mackenzie, saying he believed followers had made their own decisions to fast.
His account illustrated the complicated circumstances surrounding the case, including the influence of religious authority, the vulnerability of followers and questions about individual responsibility.
Mackenzie’s son, Dan Paul Mackenzie, who reportedly worked as a cameraman for the church, argued that his father should be held responsible because of his leadership position.
He was the leader; he was someone who they were looking [up to]. So he is a murderer of mass killing, he said.
The first bodies were discovered by local herders in March 2023, triggering a major investigation that uncovered hundreds of suspected victims in and around the forest.
The case became known internationally as the Shakahola Forest massacre and prompted renewed scrutiny of religious organisations, the regulation of preaching activities and the protection of vulnerable people in Kenya.
Many recovered bodies remained unidentified because of decomposition, complicating efforts to establish the identities of victims and notify their families.
The case also raised concerns about how the group was able to operate in isolation while members were allegedly subjected to extreme fasting and denied access to medical care.
The October 19 verdict marks a major development in the legal proceedings against Mackenzie and the other defendants.
The convictions underscore the gravity of the allegations examined by the court and the devastating consequences of the events in Shakahola Forest.
RapidoSpace News will continue to follow developments in the case, including any subsequent sentencing proceedings and further legal decisions.
