Lady Justice Diana Kavedza-Mochache was at the centre of one of Kenya’s most closely watched criminal cases on Monday, October 19, 2026, as she began delivering judgment in the murder trial involving controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his co-accused.
The Mombasa High Court judge was tasked with determining the case arising from the deaths of 191 people, most of them children, linked to activities at Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries and the Shakahola forest settlement in Kilifi County.
The judgment, running to about 1,000 pages, examined allegations that followers were manipulated into abandoning education, medical treatment and ordinary family life before undertaking dangerous fasts in anticipation of the end of the world. Mackenzie and his co-accused of the charges against them.
Her striking observations in court
One of Kavedza’s major findings during the reading was that Good News International Ministries displayed the characteristics of an apocalyptic or doomsday cult.
“The foregoing evidence clearly demonstrates that the GNI followers succumbed to apocalyptic conditioning by the first accused,” the judge observed, according to TUKO’s report of the proceedings.
She added: “The court does not therefore hesitate to find that GNI Ministries was a cult as it met all the characteristics of an apocalyptic or doomsday cult.”
The judge described an environment in which Mackenzie allegedly portrayed the outside world as evil while presenting Shakahola as a safe, sacred place for his followers.
Evidence presented in court included accounts of guards stationed around the settlement, restrictions on members leaving the area and teachings that discouraged children from attending school or seeking medical attention.
Justice Diana Kavedza also addressed the devastating impact of the alleged teachings on children and families.
“The child survival instinct was treated as an obstacle to be overcome rather than something to be embraced,” Justice Diana Kavedza said, as reported by The Star.
The judge’s observation referred to evidence that children were allegedly denied food during fasting, with some parents accused of beating their children when they sought something to eat.
A lengthy and closely watched judgment
The judge arrived at the Mombasa Law Courts on Monday morning to deliver the ruling before a packed courtroom temporarily set up under a tent to accommodate the large public turnout.
According to The Star, she explained the scale of the proceedings, having handwritten thousands of pages of trial records since September 2025. She also allowed accused persons to take health breaks while indicating that the reading would continue.
Earlier, in April 2026, Justice Diana Kavedza had ruled that the prosecution established a prima facie case against the accused, requiring them to present their defence. That decision was a procedural finding, not a conviction.
As the judgment unfolded, her findings on the alleged cult structure and the treatment of children underscored the gravity of the evidence before the court.
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