Kenyan court jails Shakahola cult leader Paul Mackenzie for 200 years over 191 murders

The High Court in Mombasa on 6 November 2026 sentenced Shakahola cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, 190 of them children, according to The Standard, The Star and Kenyans.co.ke.

Justice Diana Kavedza-Mochache imposed 100 years for the murders by starvation and a further 100 years for murders by direct homicide involving child victims. The two terms run consecutively.

Twenty-eight co-accused were sentenced to terms of 10 to 160 years, depending on their individual levels of responsibility. Mackenzie and the 28 were convicted on every count in a judgment delivered on 19 October 2026.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had asked for the death penalty for Mackenzie and life imprisonment for his co-accused, The Standard reported. The judge declined both. Kenyans.co.ke reported that she described the death penalty as discretionary and reserved for exceptional cases, said a death sentence would "foreclose the possibility of disengagement and rehabilitation", and noted that a convict who is kept alive may disclose the location of the remains of missing children.

The murders were committed between January 2021 and September 2023 in Shakahola forest in Kilifi County. The judge said some victims starved, while autopsies showed others were strangled, suffocated or killed by blunt force trauma. More than 400 bodies were exhumed from shallow graves on Chakama Ranch, and more than 60 have been identified by relatives and released for burial.

Kenyans.co.ke reported that the judge directed that all convicts except Mackenzie be assessed for a deradicalisation and reintegration programme recommended by the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). The Standard said the co-accused could qualify for early release after serving half their sentences and completing a prison-based deradicalisation programme.