A Kenyan court has found Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and approximately 30 others guilty of murder for the deaths of 190 children and one adult. The case marks one of the world’s worst cult-related disasters in recent history.
Mackenzie led a Christian doomsday cult called the Good News International Church, which claimed that the end of the world was imminent. Prosecutors say Mackenzie and his church ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to enter heaven, meet Jesus, and achieve salvation.
The discovery of the victims followed Mackenzie's arrest in 2023 after police received a tipoff. Authorities subsequently began uncovering bodies in shallow graves located in the Shakahola forest near the coast in south-eastern Kenya.
Despite the convictions, the doomsday cult leader denied ordering his followers to starve.