A court in Mombasa has found Paul Mackenzie, leader of Kenya’s Good News International Church religious group, guilty of murdering 190 children and one adult. Deutsche Welle and Reuters report that the verdict was delivered on 19 October 2026. Sentencing will take place separately.
According to DW, the court found 29 defendants guilty in total — Mackenzie and 28 others. The case concerned the deaths of followers of the group, which prosecutors said instructed people to starve themselves and their children to death, promising salvation before the end of the world.
Reuters, in a report published by The Guardian, says Mackenzie denied the murder charges and maintained that he had not forced the victims to starve themselves. The court rejected that argument. Both reports describe findings presented during the trial that some children were isolated and deprived of food in their parents’ presence.
Verdict covers 191 deaths
Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023. Subsequent searches of Shakahola forest, near Malindi, uncovered mass graves. More than 400 bodies were found there in total.
That figure is distinct from the number of deaths covered by this verdict. The ruling delivered on 19 October concerns the murders of 191 people, not all the deaths uncovered during the searches of the forest.
The guilty verdicts do not mean that sentences have already been imposed. According to Deutsche Welle, the court is due to announce the sentences on 6 November 2026.
