Kenya cult leader handed 200-year sentence for 191 murders

The 7LIVEDeveloping stories we're followingReporter covering Africa from NairobiPaul Nthenge Mackenzie and other defendants head to court in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2024. His sentence includes 100 years on the charge of murder by starvation and 100 years for direct homicide. (AFP/Getty Images)NAIROBI — Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, a cult leader in Kenya who was found guilty last month of the murder of 191 people, all but one of them children, was sentenced Friday to 200 years in prison.Judge Diana Kavedza, reading the sentence in a courtroom in Mombasa, Kenya, said Mackenzie would serve the prison time for murder by starvation and murder by direct homicide, 100 years for each. The televangelist, now 53, was arrested in April 2023 after at least 400 people, mostly members of his Good News International Church, were found buried in shallow graves in the Shakahola Forest in Kenya’s coastal region. Some of the dead have never been identified.During court proceedings, relatives and friends accused Mackenzie of indoctrinating his congregation with doomsday sermons. He discouraged modern medicine, including vaccinations, and government initiatives such obtaining identification cards and participati...