New Delhi: A court in Kenya has delivered a significant verdict in one of the most horrific and shocking religious extremism cases in Kenyan history. On Monday, a Mombasa court convicted self-proclaimed pastor Paul McKenzie and 28 of his associates of murdering 190 children and one adult in the name of superstition in the Shakahola Forest.
Judge Diana Kavedza-Mochache, delivering the verdict, said the prosecution had proven that the priest had created a “systematic hierarchy of death” at his 800-acre ashram, where followers and innocent children seeking to meet Jesus were starved and tortured to death.
How does the naked dance of superstition happen?
According to court hearings, Pastor Paul McKenzie founded the Good News International Church in 2003. He incited his followers to believe that the end of the world was near and that they would have to fast and die to meet Jesus Christ. On Mackenzie’s orders, children were starved to death first, followed by teenagers, then women, and finally men.
The judge said that the most brutal form of radicalisation was when mothers refused to feed their own children and let them die slowly. According to post-mortem reports, many children died due to starvation, suffocation, strangulation and severe head injuries.
Over 400 bodies: The horrifying truth of mass graves
The massacre came to light in April 2023 when police raided the Shakahola forests near the coastal town of Malindi, acting on information from human rights groups.
Hundreds of shallow graves were found in the forest, from which more than 429 bodies have been exhumed so far. At one point, the number of bodies became so large that Kenya’s local mortuaries ran out of space. Monday’s verdict primarily concerns the apparent murders of 190 children and one child, plus one other adult. McKenzie also faces dozens of separate terrorism and manslaughter charges.
The pain of the victims: “8 people from my family are gone…”
After the verdict, the victims’ families in the courtroom were in tears. Francis Vanje, 62, who lost eight family members, including his daughter and two grandchildren, said: “I know my loved ones will never return, but after so many years of waiting, I finally have some justice.”
Meanwhile, Pastor Mackenzie’s estranged 24-year-old son, Dan, also expressed relief at the verdict, saying justice had been done to the victims.
Sentencing will be announced on November 6
The court will pronounce the sentence on Paul McKenzie and his 28 co-accused on November 6, 2026. Defense lawyer Lawrence Obonyo called the verdict surprising and vowed to appeal it in a higher court. Following this horrific incident, there is a growing demand across Kenya for new and stricter laws to crack down on unregulated religious organisations, self-proclaimed priests and cults spreading superstition.
