Kenyan doomsday sect leader jailed for 200 years for murder of 190 children
Paul Mackenzie convicted over deaths of children and one adult after followers were ordered to starve themselves and their families The leader of a Kenyan doomsday sect has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children and one adult in one of the world’s…
Noticia publicada originalmente por The Guardian — World en theguardian.com (se abre en una pestaña nueva). Minuto 24 no es autor de este contenido.
Claves de la noticia
- Paul Mackenzie, líder de una secta apocalíptica cristiana en Kenia, fue condenado a 200 años de prisión por los asesinatos de 190 niños y un adulto.
- La sentencia combina 100 años por asesinato por inanición y 100 años por homicidio directo, dictada dos semanas después del veredicto de culpabilidad.
- Según la fiscalía, los seguidores fueron obligados a dejarse morir de hambre con sus hijos para ir al cielo antes del fin del mundo, con amenazas y palizas de cómplices.
- Más de 400 cuerpos fueron recuperados en el bosque de Shakahola, aunque solo 26 pudieron ser identificados.
- Mackenzie se declaró inocente del asesinato y otros cargos, incluido terrorismo, y las investigaciones sobre más de 200 muertes adicionales continúan.
Contexto
El caso ha conmocionado a Kenia desde que se descubrieron fosas comunes en el bosque de Shakahola, cerca de la costa suroriental del país, hace más de tres años. Mackenzie, exconductor de taxi, dirigía la iglesia Good News International, que fue cerrada por las autoridades en 2019. La tragedia planteó dudas sobre por qué pudo seguir operando pese a estar bajo la vigilancia de la policía desde 2017. Kenia es un país donde la fe religiosa tiene un papel destacado en la vida pública, y el caso ha impulsado llamados a una supervisión más estricta de iglesias y otras organizaciones religiosas.
Resumen elaborado por Minuto 24 con ayuda de inteligencia artificial a partir de la noticia publicada por The Guardian — World. Puede contener imprecisiones: ante cualquier duda, consulta la fuente original.
The leader of a Kenyan doomsday sect has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children and one adult in one of the world’s worst cult disasters in recent history.
The sentence, comprising 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years by direct homicide, came two weeks after the court in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa found the cult leader guilty of the crimes.
Prosecutors said Paul Mackenzie and his Good News International church ran a Christian doomsday sect whose members were ordered to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven before the world ended.
His accomplices threatened and beat victims to ensure they followed his orders. The emaciated bodies were found scattered in shallow graves and dumped in latrines. Some had been buried alive.
Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after police received a tipoff, and weeks later authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola forest near the coast in south-eastern Kenya.
In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered. Many were severely decomposed and only 26 could be identified.
Mackenzie denied murder charges, saying he did not force the victims to starve, but the court rejected that argument.
The Shakahola tragedy has gripped Kenya since the discovery of mass graves in the forest more than three years ago.
It raised questions about how Mackenzie was able to continue operating despite being on the radar of the authorities since 2017, when police searched his premises.
In 2019, authorities shut down Mackenzie’s church and he relocated to the Shakahola forest, police said.
The case has also led to calls for tougher oversight of churches and other religious organisations in a country where religious faith plays a prominent role in public life.
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to hospital when they were ill, describing such institutions as satanic.
Cult members lived in makeshift homes of polythene sheeting and thatch that Mackenzie divided into areas with biblical names such as Jerusalem and Judea.
The plight of his followers began to emerge in March 2023, when a man told police his brother and wife had starved their children to death in the forest on Mackenzie’s orders.
Mackenzie was arrested but released on bail, after which relatives said he brought forward the date on which he told his followers the world would end. Police rearrested him and started combing through the forest more systematically and began exhuming mass graves.
Last month’s judgment covered 191 deaths while investigations into more than 200 other deaths are continuing.
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.
Mackenzie faces other charges over the forest deaths, including those of terrorism, which he has denied.
Prosecutors said that while he was in detention he also directed the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, about 18 miles from Shakahola. Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty in that case.
Reuters contributed reporting
