October 2026

October 19, 2026

  1. Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 others convicted of murdering 191 people, nearly all of them children
  2. Car strikes Australian independent MP Helen Haines outside her office, leaving her in critical condition

October 18, 2026

  1. Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg sets oil terminal ablaze and hits VK data center
  2. Macron says 'we all feel anger and shame' after protests across France turn into riots
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Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 others convicted of murdering 191 people, nearly all of them children

October 19, 2026 at 05:17 PM

A Kenyan High Court on Monday, Oct. 19, found doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 leaders of his church guilty of murdering 191 people, 190 of them children and one an adult [1][2][4]. According to the BBC, Mackenzie ordered members of his cult to starve their children to death so they could "meet Jesus," and Justice Diana Mochache, delivering the judgment in the port city of Mombasa, said his followers believed he was "Jesus's mouthpiece" [1].

All of the defendants had pleaded not guilty, repeatedly insisting that nobody was forced to die, but the judge rejected the defense argument that the victims had fasted to death of their own will [1][3]. The judgment ran to 1,000 pages, and Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga attended the hearing in person [3]. A mitigation hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30, and the court will hand down sentences on Nov. 6 [3].

I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved their case against all the 29 accused persons for the murder of 190 children and one adult contrary to section 203 of the Penal Code.

The Star (Light moment as two Shakahola accused thought they were spared)

Mackenzie founded Good News International Ministries in 2003 and drew thousands of followers to branches across Kenya, broadcasting his sermons on his church's own television station from the coastal town of Malindi [1]. His End Days sermons described education as "evil," health care as "against the doctrine" and digital identity cards as "the mark of the devil" [1]. After the main church shut down in 2019, he moved to the Shakahola forest near the coast and urged his followers to come with him [1].

Local herders found the first remains in March 2023, and more than 400 bodies were later dug up from shallow graves in the forest [1]. Mackenzie was arrested that year and charged with 191 counts of murder in January 2024, the same month the government declared his church an organized criminal group [1][5]. The judge said burials in the forest were called "weddings" and that those who died "were celebrated as having wedded with Jesus" [1]. One of the co-accused said Mackenzie had told his followers that anyone who "resisted the directive to fast must be forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows," while a witness testified that a pregnant woman had been barred from nursing her newborn baby, who died 12 days later [1].

Thirty-one people were originally charged with the murders, and two of them died during the trial [3]. Mackenzie's former head of security was also accused at first but entered a plea deal and became a witness for the prosecution [1]. Mackenzie and other cult leaders face further cases on charges including terrorism, radicalization and denying children an education, but this was the first verdict on the most serious charges of murder [1]. Stephen Mwiti, who lost all six of his children to the cult and whose former wife was among those convicted, told the BBC outside court, "I'm a happy man, that all persons have been convicted" [1].

References

  1. [1]BBC (Shakahola cult leader Paul Mackenzie guilty of 191 murder charges in Kenya)
  2. [2]The Standard (Makenzi guilty of murder of 191 people in Shakahola Forest)
  3. [3]The Star (Light moment as two Shakahola accused thought they were spared)
  4. [4]Al Jazeera (Kenya convicts cult leader over the murder of 190 children)
  5. [5]Wikipedia (Good News International Ministries)