Families given 21 days to claim 443 Shakahola victims' bodies

DCI detectives after exhuming bodies in Shakahola Forest, Kilifi County. [File, Standard]

The Kilifi County Government has given the families of victims of the Shakahola massacre 21 days to identify and collect the 443 bodies preserved at the Malindi Sub County Hospital for burial by December 2026.

Kilifi County Executive Committee Member in charge of Health Peter Mwarogo said that investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had been completed, allowing the county to begin the process of interring the remains of the unclaimed bodies.

Mwarogo who spoke during a visit by the Joint Senate Committees on Health and Public Investments and Special Funds at the Malindi Sub County Hospital on Monday, said that the County Government might be compelled to seek a court order to dispose of the unclaimed bodies.

“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers have concluded investigations on the bodies and we have embalmed the 443 bodies which are at the Malindi Sub County Hospital Mortuary. We have been given permission for the burial of the bodies,” said Mwarogo.

Mwarogo told the joint committees led by Nominated Senators Mariam Omar and Betty Syengo that the 443 bodies would be buried in a manner that allows them to be identified in future, with the DCI expected to guide the process.

The Kilifi County Government had identified land near the Shakahola Forest, where the unclaimed remains will be interred in a manner that they can be identified even several years later if somebody comes to identify the burial site of their relatives.

The proclamation by the Kilifi County Government comes more than three years after discovery of mass graves in Shakahola, where hundreds of suspected followers of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie died after being subjected to extreme starvation and other forms of abuse.

“Only 14 out of the 443 bodies currently held at the Malindi Sub County Hospital have so far been identified by relatives through DNA matching, some families had been traced but declined to collect the remains because of the stigma associated with the tragedy,” said Mwarogo.

The County Health Executive told Senators that the Directorate of Criminal Investigation retained records of the DNA matching and identification process for purposes of the ongoing legal proceedings.

Mwarogo said that the County Governnment had published a Gazette notice giving relatives 21 days to come forward. If the period expires without the bodies being claimed and that the county will approach the courts for authority to inter the remains.

Elgeyo Marakwet Senator William Kisang asked the county to go beyond the gazette notice, stating that reliance on the gazette notice alone would leave some families unaware of the deadline leading to the burial of their relatives without their knowledge.

“It should be known that not all Kenyans would read the Gazette notice. The information should have been put in the various media channels by now because I know some people are still tracing the bodies of their relatives,” said Kisang.

The Elgeyo Marakwet Senator said that the county should consider wider publicity to ensure families who may still be searching for their relatives are informed before the remains are buried since the matter was very emotive and shocked the entire country.

Mwarogo told Senators that the 443 remains include complete bodies as well as body parts, which were recovered in difficult circumstances during the exhumation process with some already eaten by wild animals.

The County Health Executive told Senators that the remains have been stored in a container at the hospital after being released from the custody of investigators following completion of the forensic investigations.

“The Kilifi County Government wanted the matter concluded by December, partly because the temporary storage facility was taking up space needed by the hospital, that is why we informing the affected families to avail themselves or else we dispose the bodies,” said Mwarogo.

Mwarogo told Senators that the Shakahola remains are being held separately from the hospital's normal mortuary, which has a capacity for 25 bodies and currently has 22.

The County Health Executive told Senators that to ease the pressure, the county is constructing a new mortuary at the back of the hospital, which he said was about 90 per cent complete.

Mwarogo said that the new facility is expected to be operational in the coming months, allowing the county to relocate mortuary services away from the front of the facility.