A Kenyan court convicted cult leader Paul Mackenzie of murdering 191 people, 190 of them children, in the Shakahola Forest starvation deaths.

The defense was simple: nobody was forced, people chose to fast. The court's answer was just as simple. The victims in this case were children, nearly all under 16, and children cannot consent to starving to death on a preacher's say-so. What makes this case so chilling is the structure prosecutors described, with children told to die first. There are hard questions for Kenyan authorities too. Mackenzie had been arrested twice before and released.

Paul Mackenzie, the self-proclaimed pastor who led a doomsday group known as the Good News International Church, was convicted Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, of murdering 191 people in the Shakahola Forest starvation case, the Associated Press, BBC and Al Jazeera reported. All but one of the victims were children, according to the reports. Twenty-eight co-accused were also convicted of murder, the BBC and Capital FM reported. Capital FM reported that one of them had pleaded guilty to all counts and was convicted on his own plea.

In the judgment, delivered in Mombasa, the court rejected the defense argument that the victims had voluntarily fasted to death, Capital FM reported. "I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved the case against all the 29 accused persons for the murder of 190 children and one adult," the judge said, according to Capital FM. "I reject the defence by the accused persons that the victims, who were all below the age of 16 years, voluntarily fasted to death." The BBC reported that the judgment took eight hours to deliver, and that the judge said Mackenzie's followers believed he was "Jesus's mouthpiece."

Prosecutors said Mackenzie "initiated and directed" extreme fasting at his 800-acre ranch in Shakahola Forest, near Kenya's coast, and described a "structured hierarchy of death" in which children were to die first, followed by teenagers, women and then men, Al Jazeera reported. The BBC reported that one co-accused said Mackenzie told followers that anyone who "resisted the directive to fast must be forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows," and that burials in the forest were called "weddings." The defendants had pleaded not guilty and insisted nobody was forced to die, the BBC reported.

Mackenzie was arrested in 2023, and authorities later found more than 400 bodies in shallow graves in the forest, the BBC and Al Jazeera reported. Al Jazeera reported that Mackenzie had been arrested twice before and released, and the BBC reported that his teachings forbade education and called modern medicine "evil." Capital FM reported that the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights documented 448 deaths, that more than 600 people were reported missing, and that autopsy findings linked deaths to starvation, strangulation, head injuries and dehydration. Francis Wanje, 62, who lost eight family members including two grandchildren, said the loss had been "really a heavy thing" for his family, Al Jazeera reported.

The court ordered pre-sentence reports, due Oct. 30, before defense mitigation arguments, and set sentencing for Friday, Nov. 6, Capital FM reported. Al Jazeera reported the defendants had also denied charges in other cases, including terrorism and radicalization. Monday's verdict was in the murder case. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.