Paul Mackenzie Sentenced to 200 Years: The Shakahola Ruling Explained

What the court decided

On Friday 6 November 2026, Justice Diana Kavedza of the High Court at Mombasa sentenced Paul Mackenzie to an aggregate term of 200 years in prison. Mackenzie and 28 co-accused had been convicted on 19 October 2026 of 191 counts of murder linked to deaths at Shakahola Forest in Malindi Sub-County, Kilifi County, between January 2021 and September 2023, according to The Star and Kenyans.co.ke.

Reports of the judgment say 190 of the 191 victims were children. Capital FM, as republished by AllAfrica, reports that the court classified 183 deaths as resulting from starvation (182 children and one adult) and eight deaths of children as direct homicide, including strangulation, suffocation and blunt-force injuries.

The judge described Mackenzie as bearing "the primary criminal culpability" as the overall leader of Good News International (GNI) Ministries and the Shakahola settlement, according to AllAfrica.

How a 200-year sentence works

Kenyan courts, like many common law courts, can order sentences for separate offences to run concurrently (at the same time) or consecutively (one after the other). Here the court imposed 100 years on each starvation murder count, running concurrently, and 100 years on each direct-homicide count, also running concurrently. The two groups then run consecutively, which produces the 200-year total reported by Kenyans.co.ke and Latin Post.

Sentences far longer than a human lifespan are designed to make sure the offender is never released, while still allowing the punishment for each group of offences to be stated separately. If one group of convictions were later overturned on appeal, the other would still stand.

Why the court did not impose the death penalty

Prosecutors from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions asked for the death penalty, according to The Star and The Rio Times. The court did not impose it. Kenyans.co.ke reports the judge treated capital punishment as discretionary and reserved for exceptional cases, and quoted her as saying a death sentence "will foreclose the possibility of disengagement and rehabilitation" and would extinguish the possibility that a living convict may disclose where the remains of missing children are.

AllAfrica reports the judge also noted that a death sentence might not deter, because some convicts see death as a pathway to heaven. Death remains a lawful sentence for murder in Kenya, but the Supreme Court ruled in Francis Karioko Muruatetu & another v Republic (2017) that a mandatory death sentence for murder is unconstitutional, so judges must weigh each case. Latin Post notes that no execution has been carried out in Kenya since 1987.

The court also rejected the defence's request for terms of no more than 10 years, which it said would bear no rational relationship to the loss of 191 lives, according to AllAfrica.

The 28 co-accused

Kenyans.co.ke reports that the 28 co-accused received sentences ranging from 10 to 160 years depending on their individual responsibility, with most receiving aggregate sentences of 160 years and some a further three-year probation period. Latin Post reports the same range. The Rio Times said some individual terms were not yet fully reported, so the full list should be checked against the written judgment once Kenya Law publishes it.

The judge directed that the convicts other than Mackenzie be assessed for a disengagement, deradicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration programme recommended by the National Counter Terrorism Centre. Kenyans.co.ke reports that eligible convicts may apply for a sentence review after serving a portion of their terms. The court also held that parents' grief over their own children was not mitigation, according to AllAfrica and Latin Post.

Background: the Shakahola Forest deaths

Mackenzie led a church known as Good News International Ministries. The court found that followers, children first, were made to fast to death in Shakahola Forest, with the fasting enforced through indoctrination, intimidation and violence, according to Kenyans.co.ke. Mass graves were found in the forest in 2023.

The murder trial covered 191 deaths, but the total number of bodies recovered from the area is higher. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the figure at 448 bodies, according to IBTimes UK and Latin Post, and The Rio Times reports that investigators recovered more than 400 bodies.

What happens next

A sentence of the High Court can be appealed to the Court of Appeal. Latin Post reports that Mackenzie's defence lawyer said he plans to appeal, without giving a timeline, while The Rio Times said it was unclear whether Mackenzie or his co-accused would appeal.

Mackenzie also faces other proceedings. IBTimes UK reports he is separately accused over the deaths of 52 people found at Kwa Binzaro village, about 30km away, and has pleaded not guilty in that case. Latin Post reports he faces terrorism, child abuse and torture charges in two separate Kenyan courts. He is presumed innocent on those charges unless and until a court convicts him.

This page will be updated when the full written judgment is published on Kenya Law or when the other cases move forward.