The court also sentenced Mackenzie’s 28 co-accused, who were convicted alongside him last month after being found guilty of participating in the murders.
Doomsday cult leader Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has been sentenced to a total of 200 years in prison over the deaths of 191 people linked to the Shakahola massacre in Kilifi County, Kenya.
The High Court in Mombasa, presided over by Justice Diana Kavedza, delivered the sentence on Friday, November 6, 2026, finding Mackenzie responsible for 183 counts of murder by starvation and eight counts of direct murder involving children.
Justice Kavedza sentenced Mackenzie to 100 years’ imprisonment on each of the 183 counts of murder by starvation, comprising one adult victim and 182 children. The sentences will run concurrently.
He was also handed 100 years’ imprisonment on each of the eight counts of direct homicide involving children, with those sentences also running concurrently.
However, the judge directed that the two sets of sentences run consecutively, bringing Mackenzie’s total prison term to 200 years.
The court also sentenced Mackenzie’s 28 co-accused, who were convicted alongside him last month after being found guilty of participating in the murders. According to the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), 15 received 160 years’ imprisonment each, 10 were sentenced to 140 years each, one received 100 years, while Enos Amanya Ngala and Lucas Owino were each handed 10 years in jail.
Ngala had earlier entered into a plea-bargaining agreement with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), admitting all 191 murder counts in exchange for a reduced sentence.
The court found that Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, bore the primary criminal responsibility for relocating his followers to Shakahola Forest and directing them to starve themselves and their children to death in the belief that they would meet Jesus.
The judge established that the deadly fasting programme was enforced through violence, confinement and denial of food and water, with those who resisted reportedly beaten or restrained by the cult’s enforcers.
The Shakahola tragedy came to light in April 2023 after police began uncovering bodies buried in shallow graves in the forest in Kilifi County. More than 400 bodies have since been recovered from the area, making it one of Kenya’s worst tragedies linked to religious extremism.
Mackenzie and his co-accused were convicted on October 19, 2026, following a trial in which the prosecution presented evidence linking them to the deaths of 191 people between January 2021 and September 2023.
The pastor had denied the murder charges, arguing that his followers were not forced to fast, but the court rejected his defence.