Kenya: Doomsday Preacher Convicted of Murdering 190 Children by Starvation

A Kenyan court has convicted cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 followers of mass murder after urging congregants to starve their children to death to meet Jesus.

Kenyan doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie has been convicted of the mass murder of roughly 190 children after ordering followers to starve themselves and their offspring to death, Walla and The Jerusalem Post reported. Alongside Mackenzie, 28 other church figures were also convicted, with sentencing scheduled for November 6.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver who founded the Good News International Church in 2003, preached that modern schooling and medicine violated religious law and urged congregants to fast until death to reach heaven. During the trial, a former associate testified that those refusing to starve were coerced by force, while the defendants denied the charges and insisted no one was coerced to die.