A Kenyan court has sentenced the leader of a doomsday cult, Paul Mackenzie, to 200 years in prison for murdering 191 people, all but one of them children.

Alongside 27 others, Mackenzie was found guilty of the murders for instructing members of his cult to starve their children to death so they could “meet Jesus”.

Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore the “primary criminal culpability” for ordering his followers to fast to death, in one of Kenya’s deadliest episodes of religious extremism.

“The sentence is appropriate and just, to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law,” the judge added.

The self-styled pastor was arrested in 2023 after the discovery of more than 400 bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast. The sprawling investigation into the cases shocked Kenya and drew international attention.

Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors in the court in Mombasa had argued for the death penalty for Mackenzie because of the gravity of the crimes. Capital punishment has not been carried out in Kenya since 1987.

The prosecutors also cited what they described as Mackenzie’s lack of remorse for the crimes. They requested life sentences for his co-accused.

Before the hearing began on Friday morning, Francis Wanje, who lost eight relatives in Shakahola forest, including two grandchildren, told the BBC’s Newsday programme that he was “hoping for… a sentence which will match his [Mackenzie’s] deeds in the forest”.

Mackenzie and the co-accused have formally pleaded for mercy and asked for leniency from the court.

Before their conviction on 19 October, they had all pleaded not guilty and repeatedly insisted that nobody was forced to die.

Mackenzie’s followers believed he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece”, Justice Diana Mochache said as she delivered her eight-hour judgement last month.

Those who opposed Mackenzie’s teachings were beaten to death.

One of his co-accused said he had told his followers that anyone who “resisted the directive to fast must be forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows”.

Burials inside the forest where the cult was based were called “weddings” and those who died “were celebrated as having wedded with Jesus” the judge said.

The judge found that the deaths arose from an organised system, including religious teachings and directives that compelled followers to follow the deadly fasting.

Post-mortem results showed the cause of deaths to be starvation for most victims, while others died from suffocation, strangulation or head injuries.

The cause of death could not be determined for some, with their bodies having decomposed, while others died soon after their rescue as they were so emaciated.

Three people were injured after a gunman opened fire at a post office in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, on Thursday morning, November 5, 2026, before the police arrested the suspected shooter.

Report claim the shooting occurred at the city’s main United States Postal Service facility, located at the intersection of Second Avenue and University Avenue, shortly after 9am.

The police said they received reports of gunfire at about 9:10am, with the shooting taking place on the building’s second floor.

The two people were shot during the attack, while a third sustained injuries while attempting to escape.

All three victims were taken to hospital, but their injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Des Moines Police Sergeant Paul Parizek said officers arrived at the scene within three minutes of receiving the emergency call.

He confirmed that the victims were receiving medical attention, saying, “They’re all at the hospital, they are being cared for right now.”

Authorities subsequently secured the scene and took the suspected shooter into custody.

However, the police had not released the suspect’s identity or established what led to the attack as investigations continued.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said she was in contact with the state’s Department of Public Safety following the incident. In a statement shared on social media, she confirmed that the suspect was in custody and that authorities were investigating the shooting.

The post office is a four-storey regional mail-sorting facility situated north of downtown Des Moines, with a public service counter accessible to customers.

The police have yet to establish the motive for the shooting or release further details about the suspect and victims as investigations are ongoing.

Ahead of next year’s general elections, the United Nations has demanded violence-free polls, warning the Nigerian electorate against allowing the elections to become sources of violence and instability.

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simão, made the appeal during a courtesy visit to the management of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Wednesday. He also urged Nigerians to see the election as a democratic process to promote peace, national cohesion and development.

Simão emphasised that the UN recognised the enormous responsibility facing INEC, particularly amid the security challenges confronting Nigeria and other countries in the West African sub-region.

Announcing that the UN would maintain a presence during the electoral process to encourage positive conduct and support an atmosphere conducive to peaceful participation, he said: “We are here, pleased to give you moral support, that you are not alone in facing this mammoth task.”

Simão clarified that the UN would not participate as an election observer because it had no mandate to undertake election observation.

He stressed, however, that the outcome of Nigeria’s 2027 elections would have implications beyond its borders, particularly for democratic stability, regional integration and peace in West Africa.

According to him, peaceful elections in Nigeria could encourage other countries in the region, while instability could have wider consequences.

Earlier, INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan had disclosed that its technology-enabled verification exercise had identified about 1.5 million questionable voter registration records, with more than 1.27 million confirmed invalid and removed from the National Register of Voters.

Amupitan insisted that the Commission’s efforts to sanitise the National Register of Voters and address identified irregularities that could undermine the credibility of the electoral process had led to the identification of about 1.5 million questionable registration records.

He further explained that more than 1.27 million records had been confirmed invalid and removed from the database as part of preparations for the 2027 general elections.