Starvation cult leader faces death sentence for murdering 190 children by telling followers if they stopped eating they'd die and 'meet Jesus'

The leader of a Kenyan starvation cult found guilty of murdering 190 children faces a possible death penalty as he is sentenced on Friday.Hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023 at the sect's base near the coastal resort of Malindi, in what became known as the 'Shakahola Forest Massacre'.Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie was accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death to 'meet Jesus'.Last month, he was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult between January 2021 and September 2023, alongside 28 co-accused. His lawyer said he would appeal.He also faces separate manslaughter and terrorism charges, which he denies.The former taxi driver appeared indifferent as he arrived in court on Friday, wearing a polo shirt and sporting a faint smile.Francis Wanje, a 62-year-old teacher who lost two grandchildren, told AFP he hoped Mackenzie would be sentenced to death to prevent further tragedies.'Nothing can ease the pain,' said Wanje, who blamed authorities for failing to act swiftly. Paul Mackenzie, a Kenyan cult leader accused of ordering his followers, who were members of the Good News International Church, to starve themselves to death in Shakahola forest, appears in court for his sentencing at the Mombasa High Court, in Mombasa, Kenya, November 6 Lawyers for the victims attend the sentencing of Paul Mackenzie at the Mombasa High Court, in Mombasa, Kenya, November 6 Good News International Church pastor Paul Mackenzie, right, sits alongside fellow church members as he awaits sentencing at the Mombasa High Court in Mombasa, Kenya, November 6'I really have great (anger) towards the authorities. If they had taken action, we would not be here today,' he added.The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions this week urged the court to sentence Mackenzie to death, citing the scale of the loss of life and the danger posed by his actions.'The prosecution supports the imposition of capital punishment for Mackenzie, subject to consideration of his mitigation, remorse, regret and prospects of rehabilitation,' Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Jami Yamina said.Although Kenya's law provides for the death penalty, the country has not carried out an execution since 1987.Prosecutors also asked the court to sentence Mackenzie's co-accused to life imprisonment, arguing they had 'been deeply indoctrinated by Mackenzie and were at risk of reoffending'.Around 120 prosecution witnesses testified during the trial.According to witnesses, the movement denounced formal education as 'satanic', viewed modern medicine and hospitals as instruments of the devil and required followers to cut themselves off from the outside world.Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 after a rights group alerted authorities and some followers were rescued from the 325-hectare (800-acre) ranch in the Shakahola forest on Kenya's coast.The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the death toll at 429 in 2024. Some victims remain unidentified.The case has fuelled calls for tighter regulation of religious organisations, after it emerged that Mackenzie had previously been arrested twice but released.Stephen Mwiti says all six of his children died in the Shakahola Forest, where his wife took them in 2022. Stephen Mwiti who lost six children to the Shakahola starvation cult, holds their photograph inside his house ahead of sentencing of the cult's leader Paul Mackenzie, at the Maweni area of Kilifi County, Kenya, November 3 Stephen Mwiti reacts at the grave of his son Samuel, the only one of his six children whose body was identified, at the Malindi cemetery, Kilifi County, Kenya, November 3 Stephen Mwiti holds a school uniform inside his house at the Maweni area of Kilifi County, Kenya, November 3​Prosecutors said Mackenzie ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven ​before the world ended, in what became one of the worst cult-related tragedies in recent ⁠history.Mwiti said he hoped that Mackenzie and his fellow defendants, who include Mwiti's wife, would be held in solitary ​confinement if they were jailed, so they could not influence other prisoners.'Even if he were to be hanged, I ​will never see my children again,' Mwiti, 48, told Reuters this week while visiting his son Samuel's grave in the coastal city of Malindi.Samuel, who was around seven years old when they entered the forest, was the only one of Mwiti's children whose remains ​could be identified. Many of the victims' bodies were severely decomposed, with officials only able to confirm the identities ​of 26 of the more than 400 bodies recovered from the forest.Most of the defendants, including Mwiti's wife, denied the charges and Mackenzie said he did not force anyone to starve, an argument that Mwiti said made no sense.'Assuming the adults he had converted agreed to fast without being forced, what about the ​children? The post mortem even ​revealed that... Samuel died ⁠after being strangled. Was that also by will?' Mwiti said.After Mackenzie was arrested, officials said his followers continued to promote his ideas. Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after police received a tip-off, and weeks later authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola ForestLast year, authorities discovered dozens more bodies in ​a nearby village, which they linked to Mackenzie's cult.Four years ⁠after he last saw his children, Mwiti is haunted by their absence.'When I leave work and come across children, I get startled,' Mwiti said. 'At times, a child looks so much like one of my children that it shocks me.'At the ⁠cemetery, where ​Samuel is buried beneath a wooden cross, Mwiti held photographs of ​his children and some of their former school uniforms that he had hoped to bury with them.'These are all the memories I have left,' ​he said.