Shakahola: What the Court Found, and Why Mackenzie Got 200 Years

Paul Nthenge Mackenzie will spend the rest of his life in prison after Justice Diana Kavedza handed down a 200-year sentence over the deaths of 191 people in Shakahola Forest, Malindi

Twenty-six co-accused received between 100 and 160 years: 15 were jailed for 160 years, 10 for 140 years and one for 100 years. Two others, Enos Amanya and Lucas Owino, received 10 years each. The ODPP says Amanya entered a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to all 191 counts of murder.

The court found that the prosecution proved all 191 deaths, 190 of them children and one an adult, contrary to Section 203 of the Penal Code. Starvation was established as the cause in 72 cases, with other deaths from asphyxia, manual neck compression and head injuries. In 110 cases, decomposition meant the pathologist could not determine the cause. The court said the surrounding circumstances supported an inference that these victims also died under the fasting regime.

According to the ODPP, the court found that Mackenzie ordered followers to fast to death in a set sequence: children first, then youth, women and men, and finally himself and his family. Those who resisted were to be forced to comply. The court held that the directive was enforced through violence, confinement and the withholding of food and water.

Also Read: Shakahola witness testifies Mackenzie persuaded family to return to ‘Jangwani’ before six children’s deaths

Mackenzie registered Good News International as a religious society in 2020, with headquarters at Furunzi, Malindi, and about 35 branches nationwide. The court found that he taught that formal education was satanic and that hospitals were instruments of the devil. He also taught that government identification programmes, including Huduma Namba, were the “beast” of Revelation. Followers sold property, quit jobs, pulled children out of school and destroyed identity documents before relocating to Chakama Ranch, where the settlement was divided into biblical villages such as Galilaya, Judea and Bethlehem. The court found his teaching amounted to an extreme belief system that radicalised members.

The ruling also addressed parents. The court held that parental responsibility is a legal duty to protect a child’s life, health and welfare, not a right of ownership. No parent has a legal entitlement to decide that a child should die for a religious belief. Where a parent knowingly subjected a child to the fasting regime and kept the conditions that prevented the child from eating or escaping, those acts and omissions could establish a direct causal link to the child’s death.

The prosecution was led by the DPP, with a team including Peter Kiprop, Head of the Coast Region, Jami Yamina, Victor Owiti, Ngina Mutua, Betty Rubia and Yassir Mohammed.