'I Lost Friends Too': Own Son Speaks Out As Kenyan Cult Monster Gets 200 Years for 190 Child Murders

A Kenyan court has handed self-styled cult leader Paul Mackenzie a 200-year prison term for the murders of 190 children and one adult in Shakahola Forest, near Malindi on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. Justice Diana Kavedza-Mochache delivered the sentence at the High Court on Friday, 6 November 2026.

The judge said the sentence comprised 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years for direct homicide. Mackenzie, who led an apocalyptic Christian church, had denied the murder charges, claiming he did not force victims to starve. The court rejected his defence.

What Happened in Shakahola

The case emerged in April 2023, when police began uncovering bodies in Shakahola Forest near the coastal town of Malindi. Prosecutors said Mackenzie instructed followers to starve themselves and their children to reach heaven before the end of the world.

The court found that Mackenzie's accomplices threatened and beat victims to enforce his instructions. Emaciated bodies were discovered in shallow graves and latrines, and some victims had been buried alive.

Although the trial dealt with the deaths of 190 children and one adult, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says 448 bodies were ultimately recovered from the forest. Mackenzie is separately accused of ordering the deaths of 52 people found at Kwa Binzaro village, about 30km (18 miles) away. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

The suspected death toll stands at about 500, placing the Shakahola killings among the deadliest cult-related cases in modern history. The scale has been compared to the 2000 doomsday cult deaths in Uganda, which claimed more than 700 lives, and the 1978 Jonestown mass deaths in Guyana, where more than 900 people died.

Mackenzie's Own Son Speaks Out

The sentencing has also led to public testimony from Mackenzie's family. Dan Mackenzie, one of the cult leader's sons, told Reuters that his father did not spare his own relatives.

'I didn't end up in Shakahola, because I didn't believe anymore about ... going to heaven. So I left the church and started doing my own thing,' he said. 'I lost friends too, and my younger brother. It's justice to the people who we lost over there in Shakahola.'

Some relatives of the dead have said the sentence cannot undo what happened. Stephen Mwiti, 48, lost all six of his children to the cult. His wife, who was among Mackenzie's convicted accomplices, had taken the children to Shakahola, where they were starved to death.

'I lost children and I will not be able to get them back no matter what happens to Mackenzie and his accomplices,' Mwiti said.

Calls for Wider Accountability

Mackenzie had been on the authorities' radar since 2017, when police searched his premises. In 2019, authorities shut down his church in Malindi, after which he moved his activities to Shakahola Forest.

The discoveries in Shakahola led to calls for tighter regulation of religious groups. President William Ruto appointed a task force in May 2023 to review Kenya's legal and regulatory framework. Government-backed and Senate proposals were developed in 2024 but had not become law at the time of reporting.

Ojiro Odhiambo, head of rapid response at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, said the conviction was an important step but that accountability should extend further. He said local administrators, police, intelligence officers and religious leaders had failed to act on repeated warning signs.

'All these people have failed the people,' Odhiambo said.