A Kenyan court will hand down its verdict on Monday in the trial of a self-proclaimed pastor accused of murdering 191 people through starvation at his forest compound.

Paul Mackenzie and 29 co-accused face charges over what investigators call the “Shakahola Forest Massacre“, where hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023. Most of the victims were children.

Mackenzie arrived at Mombasa Law Courts on Monday morning with a blank expression. The accused descended from a bus with barred windows, handcuffed in pairs.

Prosecutors say Mackenzie told his followers to starve themselves to death so they could “meet Jesus” at his 325-hectare ranch in Shakahola Forest, inland from the coastal resort town of Malindi.

The pastor and his associates pleaded not guilty to the 191 murder counts in 2024. Mackenzie also faces separate charges of manslaughter and terrorism, which he denies.

Families demand justice

Victims’ relatives travelled to the court from rural coastal communities. Francis Wanje (62) lost eight family members at Shakahola, including his daughter and two grandchildren.

“This day, to me, is a very, very important day,” Wanje told AFP before the session started.

He said he wants a ruling that will prevent similar tragedies. Wanje expressed anger over the government’s slow initial response.

Children ordered to die first

The prosecution alleges Mackenzie “initiated and directed” extreme fasting at the compound. They claim he created a “structured hierarchy of death” which required children to die first, followed by teenagers, women, and then men.

Post-mortems and police reports show children died from starvation, asphyxia, neck compression and traumatic head injury, prosecutors said.

Mackenzie’s lawyers argue the case relies on “circumstantial evidence, hearsay accounts and inconclusive forensic findings”.

Repeat offender released twice

Authorities arrested Mackenzie in April 2023 after a rights group alerted them and rescued some followers.

Police then uncovered hundreds of shallow mass graves. The death toll climbed so high that local morgues ran out of space and excavations had to pause.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the death toll at 429 in 2024. Some victims remain unidentified.

Mackenzie has a history of extremism and dodged law enforcement for years. He founded the Good News International Church in 2003 and opened branches in Nairobi and along Kenya’s coast, attracting thousands of followers. He claims the church closed in 2019.

Police arrested him in 2017 on radicalisation charges, but a court acquitted him. Officers arrested him again in 2019 over two child deaths at Shakahola, but he was released on bail.

The case has sparked calls for Kenya to introduce tougher regulations on religious organisations.

Prosecutors charged Mackenzie in January with 52 additional murders linked to bodies found at a nearby village.

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