The conviction of pastor Paul Mackenzie and 28 co-accused over the deaths of 190 children and one adult marks a major judicial development in Kenya’s Shakahola case. It also raises enduring questions about religious oversight, child protection and the failure of authorities to intervene before lives were lost.
A Kenyan court has convicted self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie and 28 co-accused of murder over the deaths of 191 people, including 190 children, in one of the country’s most devastating cases linked to religious extremism.
The verdict, delivered at the Mombasa High Court on 19 October 2026, followed a trial examining deaths associated with a starvation regime at Shakahola Forest, near Kenya’s coastal town of Malindi. The court found that religious teachings and an organised hierarchy had been used to enforce fasting that led to the victims’ deaths. Mackenzie and his co-accused had denied the murder charges.
The ruling represents a significant step towards accountability for families who have spent years seeking answers. But it also exposes institutional failures that allowed the tragedy to unfold despite earlier warnings about Mackenzie’s activities.
From religious preaching to deadly control; Mackenzie founded Good News International Church in 2003 after previously working as a taxi driver. Over time, his preaching became increasingly apocalyptic, with followers reportedly encouraged to reject formal education, modern medicine and other institutions he portrayed as contrary to religious teaching.
Prosecutors argued that Mackenzie and those working with him directed followers to starve themselves and their children to reach heaven before an anticipated end of the world.
The scale of the tragedy became apparent in April 2023, when police began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest. More than 400 bodies have since been recovered, nearly half of them children. The 191 murder convictions relate to a specific group of deaths; they do not resolve every death under investigation.
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