A Kenyan court has sentenced Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison after convicting him of murdering 190 children and one adult in a religious group whose members were instructed to starve themselves and their families.

The leader of Good News International Church received 100 years for murder by starvation and a further 100 years for manslaughter. The sentence comes roughly three and a half years after the discovery of mass graves in Shakahola forest.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver who became a pastor in the early 2000s, spread his teachings through televised sermons. Witnesses said he persuaded followers that the world was approaching its end and offered his forest compound as a refuge from the apocalypse.

There, he divided followers between areas bearing biblical names, including Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Galilee. After baptising them in pools of water, he instructed them to fast to death, promising that they would meet Jesus.

Testimony gathered after the police raid described an organised sequence of deaths. Mackenzie allegedly announced after the start of 2023 that the world would end on 15 April that year. One account alleged that children were starved in the sun to hasten their deaths; women followed in March and April. Men were supposed to die next, with Mackenzie last.

Police entered the compound on 14 April 2023 after receiving information about conditions there and rescued 15 people who were starving themselves. They then began uncovering mass graves. The initial discoveries included 89 bodies; hundreds were ultimately found. Eight survivors died the following month from severe malnutrition.

Mackenzie surrendered to the authorities and was arrested alongside his wife and 16 other suspects.

The history of earlier interventions is central to the case’s wider significance. Authorities raided his compound in 2017 and rescued dozens of children. Some said they had left their families and schools to follow him.

He was also previously arrested on suspicion of encouraging parents to kill their children, who were starved and suffocated. Mackenzie said he had been unaware of the parents’ actions and was released on bail. Those earlier arrests and releases show that the group had come to official attention well before the mass graves were discovered.

The sentence does not conclude all proceedings against him. Mackenzie denies separate terrorism charges and accusations relating to the deaths of another 52 people whose bodies were found at Kwa Binzaro, about 30 kilometres from Shakahola. Those allegations remain distinct from the killings for which he has now been convicted.