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WED, 21 OCT · 81 ITEMS
BBC News, Sky News, CTV News + 9 more · Society
21 outletsA Kenyan court has convicted Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, the leader of the Good News International Church, of 191 counts of murder — the vast majority of victims being children — in connection with the Shakahola forest deaths, where followers were encouraged to fast to death. This is one of the deadliest -related mass casualty events in modern history, with Mackenzie and dozens of co-defendants facing charges over the deaths of over 400 people whose bodies were exhumed from in 2023.
The claim is solid as a reported court verdict from a major outlet (BBC News), but the provenance is aggregated/secondary with no primary source cited, so the exact legal details (e.g., whether this is the full verdict or one of multiple trials) are not independently confirmed here. The underlying event is well-documented from official Kenyan investigations and autopsies, making the core fact highly credible.
This is a current development — the verdict follows the 2023 discovery of mass graves and the subsequent trial, and is being reported now.
We covered the same verdict in a previous digest on 2026-10-20, and on 2026-10-03 we reported on a separate conviction of a 'cult' priest for rape and assault — a distinct case but part of a broader pattern of cult-related prosecutions in Kenya.