The key facts

  • A Kenyan court delivers a verdict in the case of Paul Mackenzie and 29 followers: 191 murder charges, 190 victims are children.
  • More than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves in the Shakahola forest; many remains remain unidentified.
  • The defendants claim no one was forced to die; some followers continue to support Mackenzie.

First verdict on the most serious charges

A court in Kenya is preparing to deliver a decision in the case of doomsday preacher Paul Mackenzie and 29 of his followers, who face charges of murdering 191 people — all but one of them children. According to the prosecution, the cult made children starve to death so they could 'meet Jesus'. Mackenzie's doctrine banned education and considered modern medicine 'evil'. All the defendants pleaded not guilty, repeatedly stating that no one was forced to die. This is the first verdict on the most serious murder charges; Mackenzie and other cult leaders are also facing a number of other cases, including terrorism, radicalisation and denying children education. Mackenzie's former head of security, Enos Amania Ngala, initially a defendant in the case, struck a deal with investigators and became a prosecution witness.

More than 400 bodies in the Shakahola forest

According to authorities, more than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves in the Shakahola forest near Kenya's coast. Seventeen men from a nearby town were hired to dig up the graves; some were paid as little as 8 dollars a day. 'Every grave we found had at least three bodies in it,' one of the gravediggers, named James, told the BBC, adding that among the remains were children just weeks old. He described how one day he found 12 children's bodies in a row inside a single grave, laid out 'like clothes, one on top of another'. The gravediggers said some of the children had their hands and feet bound, and the bodies were wrapped in sheets. Another gravedigger, Salim Karisa, said cult members often came to the town of Shakahola for supplies and water from the Galana river, and that he sometimes gave people lifts on his motorbike to the forest, but the community's activities were so secretive that no one suspected what was going on inside. Many bodies remain unidentified due to severe decomposition; in court documents some are listed as 'unidentified boy' with the burial location and date of discovery indicated.

Church, television and the doomsday doctrine

Mackenzie founded the Good News International Ministries church in 2003. Over the following 16 years it grew to thousands of followers in branches across Kenya. The church owned the Times TV channel, which broadcast sermons from Malindi. The sermons about the 'last days' featured conspiracy theories: education was called 'evil', healthcare 'contrary to doctrine', and digital identity cards 'the mark of the devil'. The pastor's son Dan Paul Mackenzie, who worked as a camera operator for the church, recalled that the sermons began at noon and included 'casting out demons'. The main church closed in 2019, after which Mackenzie moved to the Shakahola forest, urging followers to follow him.

Life in the forest and the rescue of followers

Peter Shukrani, 23, moved to Shakahola with his mother in 2019; he had attended the church since the age of eight and called Mackenzie his 'spiritual father'. In the forest he fell ill, and his condition worsened because medication was forbidden: 'My mother threw away all the medicines because she believed only God could heal me.' The community lived in clay houses scattered across the vast forest; Shukrani described life as fasting for several days followed by a small meal. He was among those rescued from the forest in March 2023 and believes he would otherwise have died. By March 2023, when local herders discovered the first remains, hundreds of people had died. The gravedigger Karisa said people were carried out of the forest so emaciated that they died in their arms.

Survivors' testimony and a split among loved ones

Stephen Mwiti, 48, said he lost all six of his children in the cult and found the remains of only his son Samuel. According to him, when he came to Mackenzie, the latter was surrounded by 'many shaved women and dozens of children'; Mackenzie banned makeup and hairstyles, requiring women to shave their heads or go around with unkempt hair. Mwiti's ex-wife is among the defendants alongside Mackenzie. 'If I met Pastor Mackenzie today, one of us would have to die,' he told the BBC. Despite what he went through, Shukrani still considers Mackenzie 'a good man who cares about me': 'Mackenzie did not force anyone to fast. People made that choice themselves because of their beliefs. I still love him, and he is still my pastor.' The pastor's former son, on the contrary, believes Mackenzie should be found guilty: 'He was the leader, people looked up to him. So he is a murderer, guilty of mass murder.'

A close shot of a bald man looking through the bars of a cellImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Paul Mackenzie operated his church for 16 years, attracting thousands of followers

A group of people wearing flimsy white plastic overalls. One of them is looking at the cameraImage source, Salim Karisa
Image caption,

Salim Karisa was paid about $8 a day to dig up dozens of bodies

A close-up shot of a bald man wearing a white T-shirt looking downImage source, Mohamed Madi / BBC
Image caption,

Stephen Mwiti says his six children died in the forest

A grey concrete building with lots of air vents in the wall. There is a sign saying Times TV Hall
Image caption,

This is the building from where Mackenzie broadcast his sermons

A young man in a white T-shirt leading on the rusty hand rail of a flights of stairs
Image caption,

Peter Shukrani says he would have died if he had stayed in the forest but still believes Mackenzie is a good man

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