A Kenyan doomsday cult leader who forced hundreds of followers to death by telling them they had to "starve to death to meet Jesus" has been found guilty of murder three years after the incident came to light.

According to local media and other sources on the 19th (local time), the High Court in Mombasa, Kenya, found Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, the leader of the Good News International Church, and all 28 of his accomplices guilty of charges including the murder of 191 people, including 190 children.

The court is scheduled to sentence them on November 6.

Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023. In the subsequent search of the nearby Shakahola Forest, over 400 bodies were discovered en masse, causing massive shock in what came to be known as the "Shakahola Forest Massacre."

Mackenzie was initially indicted for the murder of 191 victims whose identities have been confirmed, and was additionally indicted in connection with 52 more bodies discovered in January of this year.

He was accused of orchestrating mass starvation by ordering follower parents to starve their children until they died.

According to prosecutors, Mackenzie committed the crimes by establishing a so-called "hierarchy of death," dictating that children, youths, women, and men must die in that order. Investigators also confirmed that some of the deceased children showed signs of suffocation or physical trauma.

While Mackenzie and his accomplices denied the charges, the court ruled that both the criminal offenses and criminal responsibility had been fully proven.

Mackenzie founded his church in 2003 and was arrested in 2017, but was acquitted. He was reportedly arrested again in 2019 in connection with the deaths of two children, but was released on bail.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)