Kenyan cult leader found guilty of murdering 190 children and one adult in mass starvation case
Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 29 associates have been convicted of murdering 191 people, mostly children, through forced starvation. The cult's doctrine promoted extreme isolationism and the rejection of modern medicine and education.
Why it matters
Represents a landmark legal case against religious extremism and mass human rights abuses in Kenya.
The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult, Paul Mackenzie, has been found guilty of murdering 191 people, all but one of them children.
The cult leader was found guilty of 191 counts of murder.
Mackenzie ordered members of his cult to starve their children to death so they could "meet Jesus".
His doctrine said that education was forbidden and modern medicine was "evil".
Twenty-nine other leaders of his cult were also convicted of murder. They had all pleaded not guilty, repeatedly insisting that nobody was forced to die.
Mackenzie's former head of security, Enos Amanya Ngala, was initially accused but then entered a plea deal and became a witness for the prosecution.
Mackenzie and other leaders of the cult also face a raft of other legal cases, including for terrorism, radicalisation and denying education to children.
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