Nairobi, Oct. 20 -- Kenya doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 28 of his associates have been convicted of murdering 191 people, including 190 children, in a mass starvation tragedy that claimed more than 400 lives and exposed serious failures in the country's oversight of religious groups.

The verdict was delivered on Monday, October 19, by Justice Diana Kavedza at the High Court in Mombasa. The court found that Mackenzie, founder of the Good News International Church, had established a system of religious control that compelled followers to starve themselves and their children in the belief that death would bring them closer to Jesus Christ.

The case dates back to April 2023, when police investigating reports of missing people disc...