Kenya court doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie sentenced to 200 years in prison
Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, mostly children, who were instructed to starve themselves to death. The judge declined to impose the death penalty, citing the potential for rehabilitation.
Why it matters
This case represents one of the deadliest instances of cult-related violence in recent history and has drawn significant international scrutiny to Kenya's legal and social systems.
Share Save Add as preferred on Google Basillioh Rukanga and Wycliffe Muia , Nairobi EPA Paul Mackenzie's followers believed he was "Jesus's mouthpiece", the judge said last month A Kenyan court has sentenced the leader of a doomsday cult, Paul Mackenzie, to 200 years in prison for murdering 191 people, all but one of them children.
Alongside 28 others, Mackenzie was found guilty of the murders for instructing members of his cult to starve their children to death so they could "meet Jesus".
Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore the "primary criminal culpability" for ordering his followers to fast to death, in one of the world's deadliest episodes of cult activity.
"The sentence is appropriate and just, to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law," the judge added.
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Kenyan Doomsday Cult Leader Receives Two Hundred Years in Prison
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