The leader of a Christian cult in Kenya, declared guilty of almost 200 murders

BarcelonaThe leader of a Kenyan cult, Paul Mackenzie, will be sentenced as guilty for nearly 200 starvation deaths. The preacher, a former taxi driver, founded the sect in 2003, encouraging followers to meet Jesus under the false claim that the world was ending, which is why he has been imprisoned for more than three years. Now the High Court of Mombasa puts an end to years without a definitive ruling on the case.

Mackenzie's doctrine, based primarily on children, promoted that families should not take them to school or the hospital. In this way, he kept faithful families in a clandestine camp in the Shakahola forest, where many eventually died due to the lack of medicine and food.

The sect, called The Good News International Ministry, included children, youths, and adults, who often went accompanied by their entire family. In fact, before Mackenzie settled in the forest where he caused people to die, he was already known thanks to a television channel where he propagated his messages from his former church in the tourist city of Malindi. Finally, he abandoned it, at which point he founded the sect in the wooded area.

Specifically, Mackenzie will be tried for the death of 190 children and one adult under practices of starvation, strangulation, and physical beatings toward the victims. It was in 2021 when Mackenzie settled in the Shakahola forest, and two years later, in April 2023, the Kenyan police received a tip about a possible crime in the area. The authorities found emaciated people and also others buried on top of one another.

Freedom of worship, poorly regulated

More than three years have passed until Mackenzie was brought to trial and, before he even entered prison, cases of starvation deaths had already been documented in the area. It is a fact that demonstrates that freedom of worship in the African country has reached an extreme. In fact, the verdict rules that while he was still in prison, the deaths of another 52 people simultaneously occurred under his leadership about thirty kilometers from Shakahola.

The sentence will be made public on November 6th and will also affect 29 other co-leaders of Mackenzie's sect who would have also participated in the crimes committed against the faithful. However, investigations into Mackenzie's responsibilities in the deaths of other people have not ended and the number of victims could potentially double, which would also be included in the set of practices that the country's own president, William Ruto, described three years ago as the "Shakahola massacre".