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 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.