MOMBASA, Kenya — A Kenyan court on Monday found starvation-cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 others guilty of murder over the deaths of 190 children and one adult, in one of the world's worst cult-related tragedies in recent history, Reuters reported. 'I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved the case against all the 29 accused persons for the murder of 190 children and one adult,' Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache said in a hearing at the Mombasa High Court that lasted more than eight hours. No victim is named in this report.

Prosecutors said Mackenzie and his Good News International Church ran a Christian doomsday sect in which followers were ordered to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the world ended. The judge said that in some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched, Reuters reported. Mackenzie denied the murder charges, saying he did not force the victims to starve, but the court rejected that argument. Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga welcomed the verdict, and defence lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, who represents Mackenzie and almost all the others convicted, said he had been instructed to appeal ahead of the sentencing hearing on November 6.

Mackenzie was first arrested in 2023 after a police tip-off, and weeks later authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola Forest, near the coast in south-eastern Kenya. In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered from the forest; many were so badly decomposed that only 26 could be identified. Monday's judgment covered 191 deaths, while investigations into the other deaths are continuing, Reuters reported. Police said Mackenzie had been on the authorities' radar since 2017, and that his church was shut down in 2019 before he relocated to the Shakahola Forest — a history that has raised hard questions in Kenya about how the sect operated for so long.

Some relatives were in court to hear the verdict. Francis Wanje, 62, who lost eight family members, including two grandchildren, told Reuters the judgment made him happy and gave him confidence in the judiciary, while the loss of his family remained 'very painful'. Mackenzie also faces separate manslaughter and terrorism cases, according to reporting on the trial.

Sources: Reuters, 'Kenyan starvation cult leader convicted in deaths of nearly 200 children', 19-20 October 2026 (via 947 The Beast and Europe Says); The News International, 'Kenyan cult leader, assistants guilty on all charges over 191 starvation deaths', 20 October 2026.