Paul Nthenge Mackenzie

Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is a Kenyan self-proclaimed pastor and the founder of Good News International Ministries, the Malindi-based church at the centre of the Shakahola forest starvation case. On 19 October 2026 a Kenyan court convicted him of 191 murders, 190 of them children, making it one of the deadliest cult-related prosecutions in modern African legal history. Twenty-eight co-accused were convicted in the same ruling.

He is not a public figure in any entertainment or celebrity sense. There is no body of artistic work, no commercial brand, and no fan following behind his name. What exists is a criminal record: a doctrine of fasting to death, a remote forest in Kilifi County where hundreds of bodies were exhumed from mass graves starting in April 2023, and a verdict delivered more than three years later. He remains in Kenyan custody awaiting sentencing. The case has become a reference point in Kenya for debates about how religious organisations are regulated and how early warnings about dangerous teachings are handled. [edit]

Long before the forest graves, Mackenzie drove a taxi in Nairobi. That detail, reported widely after his arrest, matters because it underscores how little formal grounding stood behind the ministry he later built: he had no theological training of any kind. What he had was a message and a delivery.

He started out preaching on the streets, then moved his sermons onto recordings and social media, reaching listeners far beyond any pulpit he could physically fill. The theology he carried was not homegrown. It drew heavily on the apocalyptic "Message" teaching of the American preacher William Branham, and the Malindi congregation he eventually founded, Good News International Ministries, is described as a Branhamite sect. The church also operated under the names Good News International Church and Servant P. N. Mackenzie Ministries. His full name is often written Paul Mackenzie Nthenge in coverage, and the Malindi base on Kenya's coast became the anchor for his recorded sermons.

Public documentation of his early life is thin. Birth date, hometown, schooling and family background are not well established in the reporting that exists; the Al Jazeera and Reuters profiles of him are the fullest available accounts. What is clear is the arc: a Nairobi taxi driver with no credentials who turned street preaching into a recorded, shareable doctrine, and then into a following willing to follow him into a forest. [edit]

Mackenzie's ministry grew from street preaching into a recorded operation, with sermons distributed through social media and a congregation based in Malindi on Kenya's coast. Good News International Ministries became the vehicle for his teaching, and the Branhamite apocalyptic strain he preached hardened over time into a specific instruction: fast to death, meet Jesus, reach salvation.

That instruction was carried out in the Shakahola area of Kilifi County, a remote coastal forest where followers were told starvation was a spiritual reward. Kenyan police began exhuming mass graves in April 2023, and the scale of what was uncovered drew international attention. More than three years of investigation and legal proceedings followed, with the case becoming one of the most closely watched in Kenya's recent legal history.

The case reached judgment on 19 October 2026, when a Kenyan court convicted Mackenzie of 191 murder charges. All but one of the 191 victims were children. Twenty-eight co-accused were convicted alongside him in the same ruling. Sentencing had not been reported as of late October 2026, and murder convictions in Kenya carry a potential death sentence. He remained in custody. [edit]

Mackenzie's public image is inseparable from the verdict. He is not a figure with a curated persona or a media presence built over time; he is a convicted mass murderer whose name is now attached to a specific place and a specific body count. The Shakahola forest, the exhumations that began in April 2023, and the 191 murder convictions of October 2026 are what the public associates with him.

Post-verdict coverage framed him less as an individual curiosity than as a symptom. Activists and commentators argued that Kenyan authorities and churches had ignored repeated warnings about his teachings, and reporting in the Washington Post described activists blaming wider institutional failures for enabling the deaths. That framing has become the dominant lens through which his public image is discussed: not a rogue preacher who slipped through, but a warning that went unheeded. The verdict drew international coverage from the BBC, the New York Times, Reuters, Al Jazeera, UPI, People and Africanews, cementing his notoriety far beyond Kenya. [edit]

iFANN's Global Fame Engine has evaluated Mackenzie but does not currently place him in the published rankings, either the Global Top 1,000 or a Top-100 scope list. He is not on the September 2026 iFAMOUS Rankings flagship list. His prominence is of the news-cycle kind: attention spiked around the October 2026 verdict, drawing coverage from the BBC, the New York Times, Reuters, Al Jazeera, UPI, People and Africanews, and then recedes as the story moves on.

There is no fandom here in any meaningful sense, and no formal name for his following. The people who gathered around Good News International Ministries were adherents of a religious movement, not fans, and the relationship ran in one direction: a preacher issuing instructions and followers carrying them out. The closest thing to a community that persists is on the other side of the case entirely, the families of victims who were still searching for the remains of their dead as the judgment approached, three years after the exhumations began. Theirs is the organised presence around this story, and it is one of grief and legal pursuit rather than devotion. [edit]

Mackenzie had no formal theological training before founding his church, a fact that surfaced repeatedly in coverage after his arrest and shaped the post-verdict debate about how Kenya regulates religious organisations.

His doctrine did not originate with him. Good News International Ministries is described as a Branhamite sect, drawing on the teaching of American preacher William Branham, whose followers have appeared in several high-profile cases internationally.

The church he founded operated under at least three names: Good News International Ministries, Good News International Church, and Servant P. N. Mackenzie Ministries.

Before any of this, he drove a taxi in Nairobi. The contrast between that job and the scale of the Shakahola case is one of the details most often repeated in profiles of him.

Reporters covering the verdict noted a small numerical wrinkle: some outlets described 190 child victims, others 191 murders. The difference is a single adult among the 191 counts.

His full name appears in two common orderings, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, and both circulate in court reporting and international coverage.[edit]

No credible reporting identifies a spouse, partner or children for Mackenzie. Coverage of the Shakahola case has focused on his ministry, his doctrine and the legal proceedings rather than on his household, and nothing in the retrieved sources documents his family life. His personal history before founding Good News International Ministries is documented mainly in terms of his work as a Nairobi taxi driver and his lack of formal theological training. Any claims about his family that circulate online should be treated with caution, because the reputable reporting simply does not address it. The absence of family detail is itself notable: profiles from Al Jazeera and Reuters concentrate on his preaching and the case, not on a domestic background. [edit]

Mackenzie's name is tied to Good News International Ministries, the Malindi church he founded and led, and to the Shakahola forest in Kilifi County, where the graves were found. His doctrine traces to the American preacher William Branham. In legal terms he is linked to the 28 co-accused convicted alongside him in October 2026. [edit]

No public relationship history is documented for Mackenzie. Reporting on him has centred on his ministry, his teachings and the Shakahola case, and no credible source identifies a spouse, partner or former partner. As of 2026, his relationship status is unknown. [edit]