A Kenyan pastor, Paul Mackenzie, has been convicted of murdering 191 people, including 190 children, after directing members of his religious cult to starve their children to death to “meet Jesus”.

The BBC reported on Monday that 28 other leaders of the cult were also convicted of murder. All the defendants had pleaded not guilty, repeatedly insisting that nobody was forced to die.

Delivering an eight-hour judgement in the port city of Mombasa, Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie’s followers believed he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece”.

One of his co-accused told the court that Mackenzie had instructed his followers that anyone who refused to fast should be compelled to do so through violence.

The co-accused said anyone who “resisted the directive to fast must be forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows”.

The judge said burials in the forest where the cult was based were called “weddings”, adding that those who died “were celebrated as having wedded with Jesus”.

Seventeen men were recruited from a nearby town to exhume shallow graves in the forest, with some paid as little as $8 (£6) daily, according to the BBC.

One of the gravediggers, identified as James, described the discoveries made during the operation.

“Every grave we found had at least three bodies,” James told the BBC. “Some of the remains were of children as young as a few weeks old.”

He added, “We once found 12 bodies of children in a line inside a grave. It was massive, the bodies were arranged like clothes. One on top of another.”

The gravediggers also described finding children whose “hands and legs tied and bodies wrapped in bedsheets”.

Another gravedigger, Salim Karisa, said some of the victims were familiar to residents of neighbouring Shakahola town because cult members visited to buy supplies and fetch water from the River Galana.

“We would sometimes carry people on our motorbikes into the forest. But it was so planned and secretive that nobody could tell what was happening inside,” Karisa said.

Mackenzie founded Good News International Ministries in 2003. Over the following 16 years, the church attracted thousands of followers through its branches across Kenya.

The church operated a television station, Times TV, which broadcast Mackenzie’s sermons from Malindi. His teachings included claims that education was “evil”, healthcare was “against the doctrine” and digital identity cards were “the mark of the devil”.

Mackenzie’s son, Dan Paul Mackenzie, said he worked as a cameraperson for the church.

“The children would sit at the back, adults in the middle, and everyone would sing worship songs all morning,” he said.

The self-proclaimed pastor would begin his sermons at noon, with some sessions involving “casting out demons”.

The church’s main branch closed in 2019, after which Mackenzie moved to Shakahola forest and encouraged his followers to join him.

Peter Shukrani, 23, moved to the forest with his mother. He had started attending Mackenzie’s church when he was eight and regarded the pastor as his “spiritual father”.

Shukrani said he would “never say a bad word about him”.

However, Shukrani fell ill in the forest, where medication was prohibited. His condition deteriorated after his mother discarded the medicines he needed.

“My mother would throw away all the medicine I was supposed to take because she believe that only God could heal me,” Shukrani said.

Describing life in the forest, he said residents lived in mud houses scattered across the vast area.

“We lived a quiet normal life, fasting for a few days then having a small meal,” he said.

The first remains were discovered by local herders in March 2023, by which time hundreds of people had died.

Karisa said some followers were so weak that they died while being carried out of the forest.

“We would carry someone out of the forest but they were so frail that they would die in our arms,” he said.

Shukrani was among those rescued from the forest. He said he had been bedridden for weeks before his rescue and believed he would have died without intervention.

“My mother believed Pastor Mackenzie’s doctrine that medicine was evil. I would have died if I wasn’t rescued from Shakahola forest,” he said.

Many of the bodies recovered from the forest remain unidentified because of decomposition. Court documents refer to several victims as “unknown male child”, identifying them by the location of their graves and the dates they were discovered.

Despite the suffering endured by the cult members, including people who died from starvation, strangulation and bludgeoning, Shukrani continued to defend Mackenzie before the verdict was announced.

He described the pastor as “a good person who cares for me”.

“Mackenzie didn’t force anyone to fast. People made those choices by themselves because of their beliefs. I still love him and he is still my pastor,” Shukrani said.

Dan Mackenzie, however, believed his father should be convicted of murder, citing his position of authority over the followers.

“He was the leader, he was someone who they were looking [up to]. So he is a murderer of mass killing,” he said before the verdict.