Shakahola horror: Paul Makenzi sentenced to 200 years in prison

Paul Makenzi sentenced to 200 years in prison, while his 28 co-accused received sentences of between 10 and 160 years for the murders of 191 people within Shakahola Forest. [Robert Menza, Standard]

The High Court in Mombasa has sentenced doomsday preacher Paul Makenzi to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people in the Shakahola massacre.

Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache also sentenced his 28 co-accused to prison terms ranging from 10 to 160 years.

The twenty-eight (28) co- accused persons were found guilty of all 191 murder counts last month involving the deaths of 190 children and one adult.

Justice Mochache said that the Good News International Church founder would serve 100 years for murder by starvation involving 183 murder counts of 182 children and the adult.

She said that he is to serve a further 100 years for murder by direct homicide involving child victims which resulted to an aggregate imprisonment of 200 years.

She said that some of Makenzi’s victims died from starvation whole autopsies on some of them showed that they died as a result of strangulation, suffocation and blunt force trauma.

Cult leader Paul Makenzi is escorted by heavily armed police officers after his sentencing to 200 years in prison by the Mombasa High Court over the Shakahola massacre. [Robert Menza, Standard]

The judge said that her decision to impose the two sentences to be served consecutively was for the recognition of the distinction between the murder chargers and to punish them adequately.

His co-accused were handed 10 years to 160 years for the several counts with each one of them having a different level of culpability.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had asked the judge to hand the Makenzi, a death penalty over the lives lost through his actions and for his co-accused to serve sentenced to life in prison, but she declined.

In October, Justice Mochache convicted Makenzi and his co-accused over the murders of which occurred between January 2021 and September 2023.

She said that the accused persons took advantage of their victims by abusing spiritual authority and betraying them citing parents who has trusted them with the care of their children, some of whom wound up dead.

Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache when she sentenced doomsday preacher Paul Makenzi to 200 years and his co-accused to between 10 and 160 years  in prison over the murder of 191 people in the Shakahola massacre. [Robert Menza, Standard]

The judge cited Makenzi’s role in the killings saying witnesses had testified that he told his followers often that they would enter heaven through “punches and kicks” even if they were crippled adding that it demonstrates brutality on his part.

Justice Mochache said that the co-accused are eligible for an early release if they will have served half their sentences and undergone a program to deradicalize them while in prison.

In 2023, a human’s rights lobby group alerted authorities about the deaths and what followed with the exhumation of more than 400 bodies from shallow graves in the 800-acre Chakama Ranch in Kilifi County.

From this, more than 60 bodies were positively identified by their relatives and were released for burial and there remains many others that are unidentified and unclaimed.