A Kenyan courtroom has sentenced the chief of a doomsday cult, Paul Mackenzie, to 200 years in jail for murdering 191 folks, all however considered one of them youngsters.
Alongside 27 others, Mackenzie was discovered responsible of the murders for instructing members of his cult to starve their youngsters to loss of life so they might “meet Jesus”.
The self-styled pastor was arrested in 2023 after the invention of greater than 400 our bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola forest close to the Kenyan coast. The sprawling investigation into the instances shocked Kenya and drew worldwide consideration.
Forward of sentencing, prosecutors within the courtroom in Mombasa had argued for the loss of life penalty for Mackenzie due to the gravity of the crimes.
The prosecutors additionally cited what they described as Mackenzie’s lack of regret for the crimes. They requested life sentences for his co-accused.
Earlier than the listening to started on Friday morning, Francis Wanje, who misplaced eight relations in Shakahola forest, together with two grandchildren, instructed the BBC’s Newsday programme that he was “hoping for… a sentence which can match his [Mackenzie’s] deeds within the forest”.
Mackenzie and the co-accused have formally pleaded for mercy and requested for leniency from the courtroom.
Earlier than their conviction on 19 October, that they had all pleaded not responsible and repeatedly insisted that no person was compelled to die.
Mackenzie’s followers believed he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece”, Justice Diana Mochache mentioned as she delivered her eight-hour judgement final month.
Those that opposed Mackenzie’s teachings had been crushed to loss of life.
One in all his co-accused mentioned he had instructed his followers that anybody who “resisted the directive to quick have to be compelled to go to heaven via kicks and blows”.
Burials contained in the forest the place the cult was based mostly had been referred to as “weddings” and those that died “had been celebrated as having wedded with Jesus” the choose mentioned.
The choose discovered that the deaths arose from an organised system, together with non secular teachings and directives that compelled followers to comply with the lethal fasting.
Publish-mortem outcomes confirmed the reason for deaths to be hunger for many victims, whereas others died from suffocation, strangulation or head accidents.
The reason for loss of life couldn’t be decided for some, with their our bodies having decomposed, whereas others died quickly after their rescue as they had been so emaciated.
