Government to Burry Unclaimed Shakahola Bodies Within Vicinity
Graves where unclaimed bodies will be buried. (Photo/ Courtesy)
By The COAST Reporter
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
Hundreds of cult victims to be buried in marked graves after staying unclaimed in the Malindi morgue in Kilifi County.
The victims of controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie’s alleged cultic teachings will be buried within the Shakahola forest following failure to positively identify their bodies through scientific means.
Johansen Oduor, chief government pathologist, on July 8, 2024 said the unidentified bodies would be interred within the forest in marked graves that would make it easier to identify in the event that the DNA profiles of those bodies were generated.
Out of 453 bodies, only 34 of the ‘fasting to death to see Jesus teachings’ have so far been positively identified and handed over to relatives for burial. This leaves 419 bodies, whose process of identification is still ongoing.
The pathologist, speaking to the media after presiding over the commencement of phase five of autopsies on bodies of the cult, said most of the 453 bodies were yet to be positively identified at the Malindi Sub-county Hospital morgue because their relatives had failed to turn up for samples extraction and matching of DNA.
“Six out of the 24 bodies retrieved during phase five of the exhumations were examined, but the causes of death could not be established due to the high level of decomposition with most being skeletons of children bodies,” he said.
According to him, in forensic medicine, the general principle is that if one tries all his/her best to identify someone who is not known, the body is temporarily buried in a marked grave as they wait for analysis to come so that in the event that a profile is generated, then, they will be able to identify the grave and retrieve the body.
Flanked by the homicide director Martin Nyuguto, the pathologist called upon relatives of victims of the Shakahola tragedy to visit any nearby government chemist and have their DNA samples taken.
At the same time, he urged those who had already given their samples to patiently wait for the profiles to be generated “because the process of extracting DNA is very complex. It is not like a test for malaria or typhoid whose results can be obtained within a day.”
He said the government had generated many DNA samples from the bodies and skeletons preserved at the morgue, but was lacking reference samples from relatives because not many relatives had volunteered to have their DNA samples extracted.
The doctor hinted a possibility of terminating the exhumations of bodies at the controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie’s compound within the forest he lured through his cultic teachings.
“What will happen now is that there will be a last survey which will be undertaken by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in the whole of the forest so that now when we wrap up, we are sure that we are not leaving any human remains in the place,” he said.
