A Kenyan cult leader has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, all but one of them children, in a campaign of abuse and forced fasting.

Paul Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, was sentenced Friday alongside more than two dozen others at the Mombasa High Court.

Mackenzie preached that the world would end in August 2023 and that followers needed to fast in order to reach heaven. According to a Kenyan Senate report into the deaths, his teachings were based on “doomsday or end-times” beliefs. Children were scheduled to die first, followed by young people and women. Men were expected to stay alive long enough to bury the bodies before dying.

Mackenzie’s sentencing comprised of 100 years’ imprisonment for the murder of those who starved and 100 years for those who died by direct homicide.

In her sentencing remarks, Lady Justice Diana Kavedza said she did not impose the death penalty because it could strengthen the convicts’ belief that dying would reunite them with Jesus, rather than deter them. She also wanted to leave open the possibility that they could help locate the remains of missing children.

“In the respectful view of this court, such a sentence (the death penalty) would therefore fail to achieve deterrence,” she said.

Kavedza said 161 of the victims were children aged 9 or younger. Twenty-two were between 10 and 13 years old, and five were between 14 and 16. The ages of two others could not be established. She also said that several of the convicts’ children remained missing and were presumed dead.

The judge added that 183 of the 191 victims died from starvation, including 182 children and one adult. The remaining eight victims, all children, were suffocated, strangled or beaten to death.

Mackenzie had persuaded followers to abandon their homes and move to Shakahola Forest, in eastern Kenya, promising that fasting there would bring them closer to God and prepare them for heaven.

The court found that religious teachings were used to enforce the fast. Guards controlled followers’ movements and prevented them from leaving. Those who resisted were forced to comply, while children were restrained, denied food and punished when they tried to eat or escape.

Mackenzie was convicted of murder last month. In her ruling, Kavedza described how he used sermons and written materials to convince followers that the outside world was evil and that salvation could only be found in the forest. Messages extracted from his phone, including WhatsApp exchanges, showed that he had communicated with followers before they’d moved to Shakahola Forest.

Kavedza said most of those convicted hadn’t shown any remorse for their actions. Mackenzie smiled several times during Friday’s sentencing.

Survivors testified that deaths in the forest were celebrated as “weddings to Jesus,” with those who died regarded as “heroes of faith,” Kavedza said.

Postmortem findings cited by the judge showed that starvation was not the only cause of death. Some victims died from suffocation, neck compression or head injuries.

Authorities began exhuming bodies from Shakahola in April 2023 after reports that people had died while following Mackenzie’s teachings. They have recovered more than 400 bodies so far. The 191 murder convictions relate to the victims in the case decided last month, while further charges could follow.

Stephen Mwiti, whose six children died in Shakahola, told Reuters that his wife had taken his family there to fast. She was among those convicted in the case.

Questioning the decision to make children fast, Mwiti said: “Even if the adults had agreed to fast, what about the children?” He said no outcome in the case could undo the loss of his family.

Rodgers Shibutse, a Nairobi resident who identified his mother’s remains among those exhumed in February 2024, told CNN after the sentencing Friday: “I cannot say that I am 100% satisfied. It (the verdict) is not enough to pay for the life of my mum, but we have no other choice. At least, he (Mackenzie) cannot finish the 200 years in jail and will die eventually.”

This story has been updated with developments.

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Kenyan cult leader sentenced to 200 years in prison over the deaths of 190 children