Kenya court sentences cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years
Justice Diana Kavedza imposed 100 years for 183 starvation murders and 100 more for eight direct killings after October convictions over the Shakahola forest deaths.
A court in Kenya sentenced Paul Mackenzie, the leader of a doomsday church, to 200 years in prison on Friday for the murders of 191 people, 190 of them children, whose bodies were found in the Shakahola forest.
Justice Diana Kavedza imposed 100 years for 183 counts of murder by starvation and a further 100 years for eight counts of murder by direct homicide, according to an account of the ruling published by AllAfrica and DW. Mackenzie was convicted on all 191 counts in October. One of the victims was an adult; the other 190 were children.
He had denied the charges, saying he did not force his followers to starve.
The 191 counts cover only part of the deaths recorded in the forest. About 400 people were found dead there in what became known as the Shakahola Forest Massacre, the same account said, after the discovery of hundreds of corpses in the woods.
Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor, led the Good News International Church, which had operated since 2003 from the coastal town of Malindi. He told followers to starve themselves to death as part of his apocalyptic teaching.
Kenya keeps the death penalty in its legal code but has not executed anyone since 1987, and Mackenzie was sent to prison rather than to the gallows. Twenty-eight co-accused were given various terms for their roles in the deaths, according to the AllAfrica account.
Capital FM, in a report carried by AllAfrica before the hearing, said the sentencing was due at the Mombasa High Court and named the preacher as Paul Nthenge Mackenzie. The station put the number awaiting sentence at 29, including him.
How the reports differ
Reuters reported the sentence as 200 years for the murder of 190 children and did not mention the adult victim that AllAfrica and DW counted among the 191. DW's account, carried by AllAfrica, set out how Justice Kavedza split the term between 183 starvation deaths and eight direct killings, and noted that around 400 bodies were recovered although the charges covered 191. Capital FM, also carried by AllAfrica, filed before the hearing from the Mombasa High Court, gave the preacher's full name as Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and said 29 people including him were awaiting sentence.
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