A Kenyan court has found starvation cult leader Paul Mackenzie and approximately 30 co-accused guilty of murder over the deaths of 190 children and one adult, in one of the country's deadliest cult-related disasters in recent history.

The Mombasa High Court delivered the verdict on Monday following a hearing that lasted more than eight hours. Mackenzie and the other convicted defendants will be sentenced on 6 November.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver and self-proclaimed pastor, led the Good News International Church. Prosecutors said he organised a Christian doomsday sect in which followers were ordered to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the world ended and "meet Jesus".

The prosecution said Mackenzie "initiated and directed" extreme fasting at his 800-acre ranch in the Shakahola Forest in south-eastern Kenya. They described a "structured hierarchy of death" in which children were to die first, followed by teenagers, women, and then men.

Justice Diana Kavedza Mochache said that in some cases children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.

Mackenzie denied the murder charges, insisting he did not force the victims to starve. The court rejected that argument.

Monday's judgment covered 191 deaths. In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered from the Shakahola Forest. Many were severely decomposed, and only 26 could be identified. Investigations into the remaining deaths are continuing.

Police arrested Mackenzie in 2023 after receiving a tip-off. Weeks later, authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the forest near the coast. Mackenzie was initially released on bail, after which relatives say he brought forward the date on which he told followers the world would end. He was arrested again in April 2023, and police began combing the forest more systematically and exhuming mass graves.

Mackenzie was in court on Monday wearing a striped polo shirt and red trousers, sitting alongside his wife, who is among the co-accused. He was silent and staring into space before the ruling was handed down.

Relatives of some of those who died gathered to hear the judgment at the Mombasa court. Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight family members, including two grandchildren, to the cult.

Speaking before the verdict, he said: "It has been really a heavy thing [for] us as a family, and it has really taken us very far in terms of psychological problems … I was hoping for this particular day."

The Shakahola tragedy has gripped Kenya since the discovery of mass graves in the coastal forest more than three years ago. It raised questions over how Mackenzie was able to continue operating despite having been on the radar of authorities since 2017, when his premises were searched by police. In 2019, authorities shut down his church and he relocated to the Shakahola Forest.

Cult members lived in makeshift homes of polythene sheeting and thatch on a site Mackenzie divided into areas with biblical names such as Jerusalem and Judea. He forbade members from sending their children to school and from seeking hospital treatment when ill, describing such institutions as satanic.

The case emerged publicly in mid-March 2023, when a local man told police that his brother and wife had starved their children to death in the forest on Mackenzie's orders.

Prosecutors also allege that while in detention, Mackenzie directed the deaths of 52 people in Kwa Binzaro village, approximately 30 kilometres from Shakahola. He has pleaded not guilty in that case. He also faces additional charges including terrorism-related offences, which he has denied.

The case has prompted calls for tougher oversight of churches and other religious organisations in a country where religious faith plays a prominent role in public life. Kenya's president, William Ruto, said in 2023 that government agencies should have been able to prevent the deaths and stated that he took responsibility as president.