Paul Mackenzie was found guilty on Monday at the High Court in Mombasa of 191 murders: 190 children and one adult. The Irish Times reported the verdict. The BBC confirmed it. This is not the sentence: that is due on 6 November. These are not all the bodies taken from Shakahola forest.

Mackenzie, the self-proclaimed pastor of Good News International Church, denied murder. He said he did not force people to starve. The court rejected that argument. Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache said, in a hearing lasting more than eight hours, that in some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.

Twenty-eight other leaders of the group were also found guilty of murder, the BBC writes. This is the first murder verdict against Mackenzie. Other cases remain, including terrorism charges, which he denies. A separate file over 52 deaths in Kwa Binzaro was not decided today: he has pleaded not guilty there.

More than 400 bodies have been recovered from shallow graves in Shakahola, near the coast, since 2023. Monday's judgment covers 191 deaths. Investigations into the others continue. The Irish Times notes that many bodies were too decomposed: only 26 could be identified.

Prosecutors say Mackenzie told followers to starve themselves and their children so they could go to heaven before the world ended. In 2019 the authorities shut his church; he moved into the forest, police said. President William Ruto said in 2023 that agencies should have been able to stop the deaths. That is old context, not today's sentence.

Families came to Mombasa to hear the judgment. Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight relatives including two grandchildren. Stephen Mwiti told the BBC that all six of his children died in the forest. His former wife is among those found guilty. Their grief does not stand in for a sentence, which has not been passed.

Image: Zahra Abdulmajid, the old Law Courts in Mombasa, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; the old building, not the hearing room of 19 October.

Sources consulted: Kenyan cult leader who told parents to starve children guilty of almost 200 murders - The Irish Times; Kenya cult leader who told parents to starve children guilty of 191 murders - BBC News.